Champions League Final | Inter (N) - Sat 10th June 20:00 | Pre-Match Thread

[Cobwebcat]

1st vs 17th

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In my mind a win for us finishes the typical City tag forever. What happens after that is what happens to any team.

We have pulled victory from the jaws of defeat too many times now.

Oh and good luck to West Ham 47th vs Fiorentina 30th on Wednesday.

 

[gill_undrhill]

Only really just starting to think about this one, still buzzing from yesterday.

Save me doing research, can someone tell me quickly: since they got to the Final, how have Inter been playing - have they had many games?

I know they finished 3rd and Dzeko (37) that is his age not his number, plays for them and he is one of my favourite City players so we need be aware of him, but apart from Dzeko who else is good for Inter?

Also what is their injury situation and what sort of squad depth do they have, will their bench be as bad as United's - Mctominey and Weghourst - or do they have more squad depth?

It has just been on Talksport that for the first time in many years this CL final has a clear favourite (with the bookies) it is City and the bookies are usually right. But as a long standing City fan I always know we can c0ck things up and in a one-off game anything can happen (e.g. Wigan 2013). I just don't want to lose this one, the chance to match United's treble might never come along again, it is our best chance.

 

[bluenova]

The general consensus on here when the draw was made was that if City got through the Bayern and Real ties only Napoli from the other side would be troublesome. Suddenly Inter have turned into one of the greatest club sides ever despite finishing at least 15 points behind Napoli in Serie A. This is it for City. Produce what we can and inter cannot stop us. Destiny awaits.

I thought the consensus was that Napoli were strong favourites to reach the final, and would be a very tough game.

Inter are maybe not as strong, but they've won 11 of their last 12 games (only defeat at Napoli away), and are rated highly in most club rankings (Opta have them 5th, after us, Bayern, Real Madrid and Napoli).

We're clearly favourites, but we'd be clear favourites in pretty much any match - the betting for games against United is ridiculous, even though our results against them are pretty even. Yesterday we dominated much of the match, but it was still relatively close, and (putting reffing decisions aside), we scored with a couple of shots that 9 times out of 10 would not result in goals.

If we play well, then I'd say we've got an 80% chance, but most football games are close enough, that a bit of luck, or a dodgy decision can easily make a difference. The likelihood isn't that this is a game where we'd have 30 shots and they won't have any. We'll both have chances, and if they have their shooting boots on, then they *could* easily make it tough for us.

 

[aguero93:20]

Also, don’t want to be superstitious but they have Croatian in the squad and the team with Croatian in the squad take the CL trophy for a last 10 years.

Teams from Italy don't take it though.

 

[deano ou812]

Inter will be another hard game,again cup finals usually teams don’t play to their full potential due to different factors,but we should win in normal circumstances inter are only behind Napoli in goals scored but the defence has conceded a few,whoever scores first in this game could prove critical if we do I think we can run out comfortably enough winners,if we concede first it could well be a long hard 90 mins ..

 

[gill_undrhill]

....but it was still relatively close, and (putting reffing decisions aside)

To be honest, this is my biggest worry. I think it was 11 vs 13 yesterday with the on-pitch referee and VAR wearing red - the authorities in England have an agenda against us, because we have won the lottery and upset the traditional order of things.

But I fear UEFA have a similar agenda, they tried to get us via the courts but apart from a relatively small fine, they couldn't make it stick, so they might try to ruin things for us another way: biased refereeing and dodgy VAR decisions.

I actually have some agreement with the person who started that other thread (don't boo the UEFA CL Anthem) we just don't need to antagonise them in any additional way.

I just hope we have got to a level that if it was played fair we would win 6:0 so with 'antics' we might scrape 2:1.

Yesterday should have been 3:1 or 4:1 - we should have been playing against 10 men if Fred or Casemiro had been dealt with correctly. Like I said, it is the behind the scenes stuff that is my biggest worry.

 

[jmant10]

Couldn't have envisioned we would be in this position 3 months ago when leaving Spurs away. One game at a time and here we are... Pep and this set of players don't need to prove anything to us fans, but it would be sweet to shut the red loving media up for a few months by winning the UCL.

 

[gill_undrhill]

If we play well, then I'd say we've got an 80% chance, but most football games are close enough, that a bit of luck, or a dodgy decision can easily make a difference.

Totally agree with this. One of the reasons football/soccer is probably the no.1 sport on the planet, upsets happen! In games like Basketball, American football, Rugby (League and Union) ice hockey, I could go on.... where there are many points available, upsets are rare. In football we get shocks. Greece winning the Euros springs to mind and of course the biggest one of all - Leicester 2016 and that was over a whole season!

I hope this hasn't jinxed it!

 

[ManCityGR!]

To be honest, this is my biggest worry. I think it was 11 vs 13 yesterday with the on-pitch referee and VAR wearing red - the authorities in England have an agenda against us, because we have won the lottery and upset the traditional order of things.

But I fear UEFA have a similar agenda, they tried to get us via the courts but apart from a relatively small fine, they couldn't make it stick, so they might try to ruin things for us another way: biased refereeing and dodgy VAR decisions.

Didn't happen in this CL so far though. We got treated well enough.
So I doubt this will happen.
Historically also CL finals had good refereeing no matter the teams.

 

[roy.or.r]

I don’t think we will ever get a better chance to not just win the CL but the treble as well. I will be depressed if we don’t win it this time.