Getting ready for a Manchester City club that has their eyes on a historic treble is not easy for any coach. For Inter manager Simone Inzaghi, looking to other teams’ blueprints from past matches against the Cityzens may prove useful in addition to his own tactics.
Speaking to PA ahead of the final, the Nerazzurri coach was asked about how he intends to try and stop City’s 22-year-old wunderkind striker: “Haaland said City bought him to win the Champions League, but City isn’t just Haaland; they have numerous players who can put us in trouble,” Inzaghi said. “Rudiger managed to stop him very well in the semi-final and we’ll try to take our cue from that.”
Just this past July, Manchester City added Erling Haaland as a massive reinforcement to their squad to the tune of a 60 euro transfer fee from Dortmund. In total, the 6’4″ Norwegian striker scored 52 goals in 48 games between the Premier League, domestic cups and Champions League during the 2022-23 season.
As Inzaghi suggested, the rest of City’s attack are also quite formidable. This starts with the dynamic veteran midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, who has served up 27 assists out of 44 games this season, an average of more than one assist every two games. There is also Rodri in the middle of the field to bring balance and alongside him Mahrez and Bernardo Silva to add to the great quality. Finally, there is İlkay Gündoğan who scored a brace in the FA Cup final against Manchester United just a few days ago including his first in literally the 12th second of the match.
Limiting City offensively could be impossible as they scored 27 goals in the Champions League alone in the span of 11 games. Inzaghi will be looking to use every possible nugget of information for his own blueprint.
