Manchester City vs Inter Milan prediction, odds and preview

Manchester City will look to make history when they face Inter Milan in the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ataturk Olympic Stadium will host the first competitive match between the two continental giants due to their disparate domestic fortunes. Pep Guardiola won two more English football medals to his collection, while the Nerazzurri’s Serie A title challenge was at best brief.

The Premier League champions defeated the current champions Real Madrid 5-1 over the course of two legs to secure their place in the championship match, while Inter defeated AC Milan 3-0 on aggregate to claim the local bragging rights.

After teaching their La Liga rivals a lesson in football, Man City successfully defended their Premier League title with 89 points to fend off the threat of Arsenal, whose challenge was at best a floundering one late in the game. They then defeated vengeful rivals Manchester United to win just their second FA Cup under Guardiola.

Ilkay Gundogan, a specialist in the end of seasons for Man City, shone in the Wembley sunshine. He scored a beautiful goal in the opening minute, the fastest goal ever scored in an FA Cup final, and then let loose with another volley in the second half to make Bruno Fernandes’ penalty pointless and put Man City on the verge of a fantastic treble of trophies.

Even though Man City has been outstanding at the Etihad this season, they have only won three of their last seven games away from their home stadium. Guardiola’s team also lost both of their most recent two European road games against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. However, few Citizens supporters will be overly concerned with recent losses to Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford.

Man City, which has scored at least once in each of its past seven Champions League games, has a chance to become the fourth English team to win the competition’s current trophy. Only one other country has three past competition winners, and they will be sending a lot of tough representatives.

Man City’s penchant for offensive displays has received a lot of attention, but Inter’s tenacious defense has kept five clean sheets in six Champions League knockout games in 2022–23, with the exception of their 3–3 quarterfinal second-leg draw with Benfica. Only Arsenal’s defeated finalists from 2005–06 have previously recorded six knockout shutouts.

Inter was unable to stake their claim for a second Scudetto due to a springtime slump, but the Nerazzurri nevertheless board the plane to Istanbul having won 11 of their previous 12 matches in all competitions and having only failed to cause a ruckus in one of their previous 17 games.

Inzaghi’s club, following Milan in 1994–95, Bayern Munich in 1998–99, and Tottenham in the 2018–19 season, will leave the field to the Champions League theme as the fourth team to advance to the championship game after losing their first game of the competition.

All three of those teams ultimately ended up collecting their runners-up medals while passing the trophy, and Inter will soon join that unwelcome company unless they can figure out how to extend Man City’s European doom.