Champions League Review: The ultimate Man City treble stat-pack
Now that the Champions League season is done and dusted, we’ve had some time to reflect on another sensational campaign in football’s BIGGEST club competition. Here are the best facts and figures from an unforgettably glorious run, especially if you’re a Man City fan. Read to the bottom for our combined best XI. All numerical facts are via BBC Sport unless otherwise stated.
Manchester City 1-0 Inter: Quick match synopsis
City able to manage the chaos
The Citizens were frustrated by a stubborn, disciplined Inter team in the first half of this contest, but it opened up once they grabbed that all-important goal via Rodri. It’s ironic that City didn’t have much control over the contest but still ended up winning it, because we have all become so accustomed to Pep Guardiola’s side dominating football matches in all departments on the pitch. Not this time, but they got the result they desperately craved. Inter created the better chances, but City took the one which truly mattered.
Foden steps up
Unsurprisingly, the early injury-enforced withdrawal of Kevin De Bruyne affected City’s ability to get Erling Haaland involved in the match and exert control on the contest (he had only 18 touches) but Phil Foden’s impressive contribution off the bench offered a glimpse into their future post-KDB. The Belgian is now 31. He notched 28 assists across all competitions this season, 8 more than any other player across Europe’s top 5 leagues, so he’ll be difficult to replace when he eventually hangs up his boots.
For the record, this was the fourth consecutive Champions League final that ended 1-0.
Ederson and Onana both mighty impressive
As we predicted, both goalkeepers in this final were crucial in building play from the back.
Inter’s Cameroonian keeper André Onana showed great courage, personality and self-confidence by continuing to break City’s press with his accurate distribution on the ground, and this was all done in the BIGGEST match of all. He kept 8 clean sheets in the competition this term.
City’s Brazilian left-footer Ederson had a shaky moment in possession in the first half when he looked for a teammate but hoofed it straight into touch. However, he more than made up for that by cutting off a Lautaro Martínez shot from an angle, crucially denying Romelu Lukaku with his left shin when the Belgian really should have scored, and then punching away a goal-bound header from Robin Gosens with the second-last touch of the game. The Brazilian stopper reinforced his standing in the game, and both goalkeepers emerged from this final with great credit in the bank.
Champions League 2022/23: Best facts & figures
City are the eighth team to win the treble of league, domestic cup and European Cup. The others are Celtic (1967), Ajax (1972), PSV (1988), Man Utd (1999), Barcelona (2009, 2015), Inter (2010) and Bayern (2013, 2020).
Álvarez with a season for the books
Julián Álvarez is the first player in history to win the European Cup, league title, domestic cup and the World Cup in the same campaign. The 23-year-old finished the season as City's second top scorer with 17 goals, despite starting fewer than half their games across all competitions.
Rodri is Mr. Reliable
Rodri made his 52nd start of the season for Manchester City against Inter in Istanbul. Across Pep Guardiola's entire managerial career, the only outfield player to have started more games in a single campaign under him was Lionel Messi in 2011/12 (57).
He scored the winner against Inter here, and don’t forget his screamer from outside the box to open the scoring in the quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich. Goalscoring isn’t typically Rodri’s job, but BIG players produce BIG moments when it really matters.
Guardiola talks the talk and walks the walk
Pep Guardiola is the first manager ever to win a treble with 2 separate clubs, first doing so with FC Barcelona in 2009. In his 14 seasons as a top-flight boss, he’s won the domestic league title in 11 of them and won three-peats of league titles with each of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City. All in all, Guardiola has won 24 trophies as a manager (counting top-flight titles, domestic cups and major European trophies) to add to the 9 he won as a player with Barça.
English football will never be the same
City have scored 100+ goals more than they have conceded in 3 of the past 5 seasons (2018/19, 2021/22 and 2022/23) - prior to Guardiola's arrival at the club, no English top-flight side had finished a season having scored 100+ more than they had conceded. Is he football royalty?
Feed Haaland and he’ll score
Erling Haaland is the third player to have been Champions League top scorer with 2 different clubs. He topped the charts with 10 for Borussia Dortmund in 2020/21 and 12 for City this term. Andriy Shevchenko (Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Real Madrid) are the others.
The Norwegian goal-machine will surely have his sights set on Ronaldo’s all-time single season Champions League record of 17 strikes next.
Jack’s back to his best
After a sluggish start to his City career following a BIG money move, Jack Grealish became an indispensable member of this treble-winning machine. According to Opta statistics, he created 35 chances for teammates in the Champions League this season, 12 more than any other player and the most since Dušan Tadić in 2018/19 (37).
Champions League best XI in 2022/23
Our best XI factors in how individuals performed between the first day of the group stage and the final on 10th June. It’s difficult to argue against including mostly Man City stars.
Onana; Walker, Dias, Bastoni, Aké; Stones, Rodri, De Bruyne; Bernardo Silva, Haaland, Vinícius Júnior
The season isn’t over yet for many of them: click to bet small on upcoming internationals