Manchester City face Italian side Inter in what could be the most mismatched Champions League final for more than 30 years.
Pep Guardiola’s City are hoping to become the first English side to win the Treble since Manchester United in 1998-99, having won the Premier League and FA Cup in recent weeks.
The Citizens have never won the Champions League before, although Guardiola won it twice with Barcelona, in 2008-09 and 2010-11.
Clinching Europe’s premier competition for Man City, where Guardiola has collected five Premier League titles, two FA Cups and four League Cups, is viewed by many as the final hurdle left to overcome for the Spaniard.
Meanwhile, Inter’s Simone Inzaghi will be plotting how to stop City – the Italian has won his last seven finals, including the 2023 Coppa Italia, beating Fiorentina last month.
What time is the Champions League final?
The game is taking place at Istanbul’s Ataturk Olympic Stadium, which is hosting its first Champions League final since Liverpool’s famous penalty-shootout victory over AC Milan in 2005.
The 2019-20 final, when Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0, was supposed to be held at the Ataturk, but was moved due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The game will take place at 10pm Turkish time, which is 8pm in the UK.
Champions League final TV channel and live stream
For UK viewers, there are two ways of watching the final. Firstly, it will be shown live on BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate, with coverage starting at 6.30pm BST for the 8pm kick-off.
But BT has also announced the match will be available to watch for free on its website, app and YouTube channel, so it doesn’t matter whether you already have a BT Sport subscription or not.
Pep urges City fans not too boo Champions League anthem
By Sam Cunningham, i chief football correspondent in Istanbul
Pep Guardiola urged Manchester City fans not to boo the Champions League anthem as he prepared to fulfil his “dream” of winning the one trophy that has eluded him since he arrived in English football.
City fans have booed the Champions League anthem when it is played shortly before kick-off for several years but the animosity intensified after Uefa suspended the club from the competition for two years and fined them for breaching financial fair play regulations.
The suspension was later quashed and the fine reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
But Guardiola has called for City’s supporters to end the booing to give their side the best chance of lifting the Champions League trophy for the first time.
“It’s a day to celebrate it,” Guardiola said. “For Inter and Man City fans it is a day to be happy. This is the most important thing. What happened in the past is the past.
“The Champions League is an incredible competition, we are here to support Uefa with their competition unconditionally. We are not going to boo anymore, we are going to support the game.”
Guardiola has swept up almost every trophy available at City but his failure to win the Champions League is held against him.
“It’s absolutely a dream [to win it],” Guardiola said. “Absolutely a dream. To achieve things you need to have the right personal obsession and desire. Obsession is a positive word, having that desire to win. But of course it is a dream.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/04eEjaU
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