Although Pep Guardiola admits Inter Milan has a very rich repertoire and pedigree in the Champions League than Manchester City, he believes his team are better poised to clinch the ultimate.
Additionally, Pep Guardiola stated that winning Manchester City’s first Champions League is his “dream” and “obsession,” as the Premier League champions attempt to complete a “treble” by defeating Inter Milan in Saturday’s final in Istanbul.
After winning the league and FA Cup this season, City, who lost to Chelsea 1-0 in their lone 2021 winners League semifinal appearance, will take on three-time European winners Inter. With a victory at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, City will become the first English club to complete the triple since Manchester United in 1999.
Guardiola was appointed by City in 2016 with the goal of making City Champions League champions, although he has yet to accomplish this goal. The former coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich also stated that beating Inter would be the realization of a dream when speaking in Istanbul on Friday.
“It’s a dream, yes.” Guardiola said. “It has to be. To achieve things, you always have to have the correct level of obsession or desire. Obsession is a positive word for the desire to do it, but of course, it’s a dream.
“We know how important it is. I don’t control what the people have opinions about, I just focus on what we have to do. I saw Inter’s games and we try to do our game. Everything finishes with a game and the team who performs best over 95 minutes will win.
“Inter Milan is bigger than us, in terms of history in this competition, and we are favourites to win the game, but what’s important is that, at 10 p.m. Istanbul time, we do the best performance possible and that can make the difference.”
Guardiola claims his team is prepared to exact revenge for their Champions League loss to Chelsea two years ago in Porto.
“It’s a different game, different players,” he said. “I’m pretty sure what we planned was to have success and a good game against Chelsea. It didn’t work, people say decisions were wrong, but we have a plan and an idea.
“I’ll communicate it to the players. If we win it will be good and I’ve a feeling we are ready.
“The players will give everything, knowing the opponent, but yeah — go for it.
“We have to be stable, defend well and be patient. The most important thing is not to think at 0-0 you are losing.
“Italian teams can think at 0-0 they are winning and they are not. In both circumstances, you have to be stable.”
