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Five reasons Man City vs Inter Milan Champions League final is not a gimme for Guardiola
COMMENT: Manchester City will not find it all plain sailing against Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
Guardiola delights in Man City reaching Champions League final
Following their emphatic 4-0 win over Real Madrid at the Etihad, Manchester City are overwhelming favourites to lift the Champions League on June 10. But even though Inter Milan were way off the pace in Serie A this season, Express Sport explore five reasons why they will be anything but a pushover in Istanbul.
Clean sheets
Manchester City have got to score past Inter to beat them and avoid the lottery of penalties but the Italians have kept clean sheets in eight of their previous 12 Champions League matches.
Francesco Acerbi, Matteo Darmian and Alessandro Bastoni played in each of those games - and if the imposing figure of Milan Skriniar is fit, the Serbia international can only improve them.
High press
Simone Inzaghi’s main tactic is to press Inter’s opponents right back into their own penalty areas. As a result of that, they have recovered possession over 300 times in the offensive third of the pitch.
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Around one in five of these chances has resulted in a shot at goal - City will have to move the ball quickly just to get up the field.
Hot crosses
Somewhat out of vogue in football, where wingers are so often encouraged to cut inside, a lot of Inter’s attacking play comes from out wide. Their 600-plus crosses Inter have delivered during their domestic season, more than any other team, and more importantly, over a quarter of them have found their target.
When those targets are Lautauro Martinez together with Romelu Lukaku and Edin Dzeko, that’s a fairly potent weapon.
Left field
Federico Dimarco’s assist for Henrikh Mkhitaryan took his tally in the competition to five - a tally that has not been equalled in the Champions League since Samuel Eto’o managed the same number in the 2010-11 tournament.
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It will mean Bernardo Silva - so influential on Wednesday - keeping one eye over his shoulder and could restrict Kyle Walker’s advances too.
Midfield maestro
Nicolo Barella is the man who can make Inter Milan tick and the player closest to a Kevin De Bruyne in terms of his ability to pick open a defence. Similar to the Belgian,
Barella also has a knack of timing defence-splitting runs and has already been picked out to good effect at Barcelona and Benfica by Bastoni’s long passes.