Manchester City 0-0 Inter Milan
ETIHAD STADIUM — There are over 200 miles separating the International Dispute Resolution Centre in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral and the Etihad Stadium, but despite what everyone around east Manchester tells you, the 115 charges hearing really is looming large over everything Manchester City do.
City have made a mockery of the first phase of recent Champions League campaigns, coming into Wednesday night’s re-run of the 2023 final against revenge-hunting Inter Milan after scoring three goals in each of their first nine games in last season’s competition – the first side ever to do so.
With world football’s elite marksman Erling Haaland poised on 99 club goals, ready to beat Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of the fastest to a century at a European club, the scripts were written.
But not only did City not score for the first time in 40 home Champions League group games, they were, for long periods, outplayed by a team who, on paper, cannot hold a candle to English football’s all-conquering force.
It was as if Pep Guardiola and his team’s thoughts were, on this week of all weeks that could determine the past, present and future of this history-making side, elsewhere.
There is of course, in this new Champions League format that helps the minnows and ensures the very best are looked after in equal measure, plenty of time for City to turn things around, but rarely, on any stage, have Guardiola’s juggernaut failed to trouble a team as infrequently as Inter were under the Etihad lights.
For all the work they have done in getting to the head of Europe’s top table, City still, on occasion, act like those who belong on the outside looking in.
The pre-match entertainment, on the opening night on a Champions League campaign, was a local brass band playing Oasis hits. “Cigarettes and Alcohol” has never sounded so humdrum.
The start of the game was not all that rock and roll either. Rodri, making his first start of the season, was on a one-man mission to prove his own point about the modern footballer’s excessive workload as he laboured through.
Jack Grealish continued to be ineffective, his bravado strangled by the Guardiola system, while Haaland barely had a sniff, marshalled superbly by a well-drilled Inter unit.
Perhaps the kit City were debuting – their Oasis-inspired “Definitely City” Champions League strip, supposedly co-designed by Noel Gallagher to resemble the band’s famous album cover of 30 years previous, could be blamed for passes missing their targets with regularity.
Inter, who won on their last trip to England – a 1-0 success at Anfield in 2022 – had the better of the first-half chances, with Marcus Thuram, Lillian’s talented offspring, firing the best of the lot wide from a promising position.
Kevin De Bruyne did not appear for the second half, having taken a knock as the break approached, perhaps with one eye on Arsenal at the weekend. His replacement, Phil Foden, a more than capable stand in.
But it was Inter who remained in top, with an even more presentable opening passed up by former Manchester United full-back Matteo Darmian, who inexplicably chose to back heel to nobody when through on goal. His coach, Simone Inzaghi, of particular goalscoring stock himself, was beyond incredulous on the sidelines.
Foden did help them start to up the ante, jinking inside before finally calling Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer into a meaningful save, but that foray forward offered only a brief respite for the hosts, with another former United flop, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, passing up another golden opening, blazing over from 12 yards out.
Josko Gvardiol did force Sommer into another flying stop late on, before the Croatian clipped a perfect late cross for Ilkay Gundogan that was headed straight Sommer again.
Inter held on in relative ease for their point, but Inzaghi will know his side could have left Manchester with even more. City’s must regain their focus, fast, with Mikel Arteta licking his lips at capitalising on any further distraction.
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