After completing ‘treble,’ is Man City the greatest team ever?

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

Manchester City finally has the European title that it has been chasing for more than a decade.

In Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul, City midfielder Rodri scored the only goal his team needed to defeat Inter Milan, 1-0. The breakthrough came in the 68th minute after a cagey first hour-plus of the match during which Inter, the overwhelming underdog, more than held its own against the English Premier League titans.

The victory makes Pep Guardiola’s team just the second to complete the “treble” in England by claiming the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup crown in the same season. It matched the feat that City’s crosstown rival, Manchester United accomplished in 1999. The Sky Blues’ triumph also gives Guardiola his third Champions League trophy; the Spanish manager previously won the world’s top club competition twice with Barcelona.

Here are three quick takeaways from Saturday’s contest.

Manchester City finally wins the big one …

Even since the historic but not particularly successful club was bought by its super–wealthy Emirati ownership group back in 2008, winning the Champions League was the end game. With money no object, City began stockpiling the planet’s best players. They hired Guardiola, perhaps the world’s best coach.

But despite seven Prem titles since 2012 — including five of the last six — the closest the Sky Blues got to the sport’s most prestigious piece of silverware after the World Cup was two years ago, when they were stunned by English rival Chelsea in the finale.

This year always felt different. City acquired what many considered the missing piece in striker Erling Haaland last summer. And they got stronger as this season went on, reeling off 12 league wins to leapfrog Arsenal down the stretch domestically, and routing no less than Bayern Munich and then Real Madrid over two legs in the Champions League quarters and semis, respectively, to return to the decisive contest. These Cityzens looked poised and mature under pressure, too, in a way their predecessors sometimes didn’t in the biggest moments.

That experience was on full display Saturday. City didn’t dominate as they so often do. Inter had plenty of chances but were thwarted at every turn. The favorites bent but didn’t break. Once Rodri’s goal went in, there was a sense that it would be enough. And sure enough, it was, even if City keeper Ederson had to rescue his team twice in the dying minutes — including a goal-bound shot that he pawed over the crossbar seconds before the final whistle sounded.

After so many years of heartbreak, this City team simply wouldn’t be denied.

… But Inter Milan made them work for it

Inter deserves a ton of credit. A team that was underestimated all season, neutral observers kept waiting for the wheels to fall off. So when the Italians dispatched Serie A rivals Napoli and AC Milan to surprisingly reach the final, it was only more of the same. There was no question from most quarters that the Nerazzurri had no chance against mighty Man City. Of course Inter would lose. It was only a matter of by how much.

Inter didn’t pull of the upset of upsets, but they couldn’t have come any closer. Before Rodri’s eventual winner, one could even argue that Simone Inzaghi’s team had been the sharper of the two. Inter had more shots and shots on goal to that point. (In the end, Inter had twice as many attempts overall.) The longer the game went scoreless, the more confident they seemed to grow.

And Inter didn’t stop fighting even after falling behind. Far from it. Their best chances of the game came when they were desperately trying to equalize.

On another night, against any other opponent, the one goal they needed may well have come.

Is this City team the best ever?

Nobody – and certainly not their supporters – will remember how the Sky Blues won this game. The 2022-23 version of Manchester City will only go down as champs, treble winners, one of the best teams in recent memory.

The question is how good? Better than that iconic 1999 Man United side? (Probably.) How about Guardiola’s 2009 or 2011 Barca squad or Cristiano Ronaldo-led Real Madrid, which won three Champions League in a row in the late 2010s? (Maybe.)

In the days and weeks to come, plenty will be written and said about where Guardiola’s team ranks in history. The same goes for Pep, who may now have cemented his legacy as the greatest coach of all time.

Those are the sorts of conversations Man City is in now, after at long last achieving the goal they’d set their sights on all those years ago.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.