Pep Guardiola, Manchester City and the Champions League obligation. Is it just a dream for Inter? – Corriere.it

For Inter the most improbable of dreams. Perhaps an obligation for City, certainly an obsession. The difference can also be perceived by eye. On the broad avenue leading to Taksim Square, the balance of power is three against one. From the top of a poster that covers the facade of an entire building, Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, arms strictly folded, are flanked by Pep Guardiola with the same defiant look that is now fashionable in sports studios. On the sister building across the street, l’enfant du pays Hakan Calhanoglu replies the same expression in solitude, because nationalism rules the law here too. Apparently, maybe just a personal impression, he does it with a greater hint of modesty than tomorrow’s opponents.

For once, Italy ahead. Istanbul airport arrivals speak only one language, ours. The British will begin to land from this evening, which is not said to be a bad thing, even if the Citizens are presented as a mild fan base. Therefore, we can list the things we learned during a stop at passport control in the company of two small Nerazzurri groups, one from Pavia, the other from Tuscany, both holders of a travel triangulation on Paris and Frankfurt that pays homage to the economic convenience but defies logic, like this challenge.

The list of fundamental notions learned that we learned during a half-hour attendance begins with the news that Istanbul was not fatal only for Milan, who, as every self-respecting Inter player likes to remember, lost a final here in 2005 that they had already won. But to a lesser extent it was also for City, which in 1969 in its first ever European away match was defeated and eliminated by Fenerbahe in the first round of the then UEFA Cup. Go ahead then with other precious information on the fact that all good things come in threes and if the former AC Milan fans, Suso and Paqueta, have won the first two cups, now it’s the turn of their former teammate Calhanoglu. And finally, the only other time West Ham won their only other European cup before the Conference at Fiorentina’s expense was in 1964, and a few days later Inter Sarti-Burgnich-Facchetti lifted the Cup of the Champions as an underdog at the expense of Real Madrid.

Superstition is the bread of the fans, and in a David-Goliath confrontation it takes a lot. The others have numbers, which make an impression. City’s squad for this competition cost more than three times that of Inter, 910 million euros against 295. Long gone are the days of My life ruined by Manchester United, a tale of sporting marginalization written by a City fan who recounted the sadness of rooting for a derelict team, regarded as a noisy neighbor by city rivals who meanwhile piled up trophies. Today City has the ambition to become the Coca-Cola of football, a global multinational whose team that bears the company name, City Football Group, became the most valuable brand in the world of football last Wednesday, surpassing the Real Madrid.

When, after 36 years of abstinence, the first English title of the era inaugurated by Sheikh Mansour arrived in 2012, the English press accused the foreigner from Abu Dhabi of buying it for a billion pounds, the amount invested in that first four years of ownership . To date, despite the constraints of UEFA, he has spent another four, partly dedicated to the construction of the Etihad Stadium. Only one thing is missing. To City, and to the man called to Manchester to conquer it. Guardiola now in the history books of football. But as with his very wealthy employers, at the end of the chapters concerning him there is always an asterisk, the Champions League won only with Messi and Iniesta’s Barcelona. It’s now or never, even for them. And with dreams, you run much easier.