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The Premier League champions are considered favourites for Saturday's top clash but the Serie A giants how weapons that hurt them
For the first time since 2010, Inter Milan will be contesting for the Champions League trophy hoping to make it a fourth one in their history on Saturday.
Manchester City will be hoping to become only the third English team in Premier League history to contest winning a historic treble (counting even the Arsenal Women’s side of 2007 that won the historic quadruple).
It is going to be a very interesting game that may well define the 21st century Champions League finals, considering both sides are managed by coaches who set their systems up in a way that defined their playing careers as well. Let us begin with Manchester City:
At the start of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career, he seemed intent on creating the type of team that would have suited him as a player.
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A slender, technical midfielder who lacked physicality but could spread play calmly, Guardiola’s playing career ended prematurely because football no longer suited his type of player; defensive midfielders at the turn of the century were supposed to be about power and ball-winning ability.
But Guardiola won the European trophy in his first season as a manager, with Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andres Iniesta — three players who grew up idolising him — in midfield. It was, stylistically, an extraordinary achievement and almost an immediate justification of a personal crusade.
As a former centre-forward, Simone Inzaghi is somewhat rare as a manager of Champions League finalists. The last ex-striker to take a team to this stage was Jupp Heynckes with Bayern in 2013, before that it was Sir Alex Ferguson with Manchester United.
Those two retired from playing in the 1970s, whereas Inzaghi was playing until 2010, when two-striker formations were increasingly rare at the top level, with the concept of the false nine set to rise to prominence.
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And, sure enough, Inzaghi is also highly unusual because he almost religiously plays two up front. Depending upon your interpretation of Cristiano Ronaldo’s role towards the end of his time at Real Madrid, it’s arguable that Inter can become the first side for two decades to win the European Cup with two proper strikers in their starting XI since city rivals AC Milan did so in 2003.
That duo, funnily enough, featured Inzaghi’s elder brother Filippo, paired with Andriy Shevchenko.
So, where will the game be won or lost?
Manchester City will be expected to have a lot of the ball as a result. They will be setting up in a 3-2-5 in possession with John Stones stepping into the midfield to help Rodri by creating a platform that provides security from counter attacking situations in case the ball is turned over and also allow for Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne to join the attack consisting of Jack Grealish and Benardo Silva on the flanks and Erling Haaland upfront.
One of Nathan Ake or Manuel Akanji will play as the left-sided center back, while Walker plays on the right sided center back role as Dias plays as the lone centre-back.
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However, Ederson, who is so good on the ball may play as a de facto center back, which will leave City building from the deep with six players, not too dissimilar to how Roberto De Zerbi sets his team up.
This will try and play a part in outnumbering the two forwards in front of Lautaro Martinez and one of Romelu Lukaku and Edin Djeko, so expect them to have a lot of the ball
Inter will be happy with that. Hakan Chalanoglu will be expected to start as the deepest lying midfielder ahead of Marcelo Brozovic, while Henrikh Mkhytarian and Nicolo Barella drop to defend the channels that both Gundogan and De Bruyne will exploit.
Expect Erling Haaland not to be involved a lot in the game because the three midfielders will be seeking to block those kind of spaces, just like Luca Modric and Federico Valverde in the first leg of the Champions League semi finals.
At the back, it may be difficult for Haaland to overpower the back three of Stefan De Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni and Francesco Acerbi, just like Karim Benzema struggled on both legs.
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Inter Milan will also heavily rely on the width of their two marauding wingbacks, Denzel Dumfries and Federico Di Marco to pin back the City wide center backs. This will allow for Dzeko to lay the ball off to either of them assuming Mkhytarian and Barella win those second balls, while Lautaro Martinez, who follows every instruction to the letter is capable of doing that.
If Dzeko starts, he will likely play for 60 minutes before Lukaku is brought on to complete the remaining work. Both are classic back to goal strikers who can hurt you with that very skill and create space for others. Dias, and whoever starts between Ake and Akanji and Walker will have to be at their absolute best not to fall for those traps and stop them from countering.
At the same time, Inter have one of the best ball playing goalkeepers in Andre Onana who always has options to pass to. Dzeko is the primary target with a long ball over the top so he can do lay offs with his back to goal, but there is also the option of hitting the balls to the wingbacks, or one of Barella and Mkhytarian in their half spaces.
As we have seen with Pep Guardiola, he sets the team to press differently depending on the opposition his side face, like against Bayern Munich when he changed the way Grealish was pressing and it gave Dayot Upamecano nightmares as their best distributor. It will be interesting to see how he will set up the team to stop Onana. There is a reason Inter have done so well in cup competitions and won numerous trophies.
They do the basics right. They sit deep and do not really make mistakes, and the few times they have the ball, they make them effective.
Those are the keys to these games. Inter being very compact in a low block set up. Guardiola will have to find out how to stop Onana, how to get Erlin Haaland involved and how to prevent his center-backs from falling for the trap of being run round by the twin-striker approach Inter will adopt.
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