How Manchester City won their first champions league trophy at Istanbul + Seven facts behind the game
Manchester City on Saturday night beat Inter Milan 1-0 to win their first ever Champions League trophy.
The club won through Rodrigo Hernández’s 66th minute strike.
Pep Guardiola’s side travelled to Istanbul to banish the memories of two years ago, when they lost out to Chelsea in the 2021 final.
They have also equaled the legendary treble won by Manchester United in 1999.
The Premier League title has been claimed for the fifth time in six years, while Manchester City beat Manchester United at Wembley last weekend to lift the FA Cup.
Here are seven other facts behind the game as provided by Opta.
1. Manchester City become the first team since rivals Manchester United in 2007/08 to go a full Champions League campaign unbeaten.
2. The last four Champions League finals have now all ended 1-0, more than the previous 27 finals combined.
3. City striker Julian Alvarez became just the third player this century to win both the World Cup and the Champions League in the same season.
4. Erling Haaland finishes the season as the Champions League top scorer with 12 goals. The Norwegian star also becomes just the fourth player in history to both finishes as both Premier League and UCL top scorer in the same season after Dwight Yorke (1998/99), Ruud Van Nistlerooy (2002/03) and Cristiano Ronaldo (2007/08).
5. Rodri also became the first central midfielder to score in the Champions League final since Real Madrid’s Casemiro back in 2017.
6. That strike meant that all seven goals scored in the Champions League finals at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium had all come at the same end of the pitch.
7. Manchester City have scored 100+ goals more than they’ve conceded in three of the last five seasons (18-19, 21-22, 22-23) – prior to Pep Guardiola’s arrival, no English top-flight side had ever scored 100+ more than they had conceded in a single campaign.
Source: PUNCH
