It felt inevitable with this team – if not now then soon.
They found themselves at the perfect confluence of money, politics and power and the talent that it can bring, and now they have their own treble. The 21st century has been much kinder to City. Twenty-four years have passed since Ferguson’s thrilling win at the Nou Camp in the same year that City emerged from the third tier. Guardiola has won it all now for his bosses in the Gulf. They rode it out and then in the minutes before Rodri’s goal you could hear the distant rumble of another City victory. This was more memorable for not being the perfectly grooved, unstoppable City performance, but they also have a solution for those nights. But he was here this time to see the final conquering, this time of Internazionale, who put up a splendid fight until the ball broke loose in the box on 68 minutes and Rodri swept it home to remind everyone this is how it usually goes. In all that time, their mysterious benefactor from Abu Dhabi has only found time to watch his creation once before this night on the outskirts of Istanbul. They have already been champions of England seven times in 12 years and now Pep Guardiola’s team have repeated the epic 1999 single-season achievement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United – Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League. Fifteen years to reorder the game, defeat Uefa at their own regulatory game and build a team that no-one else can beat. The clock stops, the curtain falls, the last pillar of resistance falls: football belongs to Abu Dhabi’s club in the east of Manchester for now at least. There are not many fans who turn up for only the second game of their supporting lives and watch their club seal the greatest treble with Europe’s greatest club prize, but then Sheikh Mansour has sunk the best part of £2 billion into Manchester City, and perhaps even more. By Sam Wallace, Chief Football Writer at the Ataturk Stadium, Istanbul
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