On May 18, Beijing time, the semifinals of the Champions League are all over, and Manchester City and Inter will meet in the final! At 3 a.m. on the 6th and 11th, this season's Champions League final will start in Istanbul.
The road to the cut
Inter faced Bayern and Barça in the group stage, and the situation was quite unfavorable, but with two home and away games against Barça 1 win and 1 draw unbeaten, Inzaghi Jr.'s team eventually qualified as the second in the group.
In the 1/8 final, they defeated Porto 1-0 on aggregate, and in the 1/4 final, they eliminated Portuguese Premier League side Benfica again with a 5-3 aggregate score. In the semi-finals, the Nerazzurri won the first leg 2-0 and the second leg 1-0 to eliminate their opponents 3-0 on aggregate and advance to the Champions League final for the first time in 13 years.
It will also be Inter's sixth trip to the final, having won three of the previous five, most recently in 2010.
Manchester City faced Dortm Dorthorn and Sevilla in the group stage, easily qualified unbeaten in six rounds, swept Leipzig 7-0 in the second leg of the 1/8 final, and beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in the first leg of the quarter-final.
In the semi-final against Real Madrid, the first leg at the Bernabeu shook hands 1-1, returned to the Etihad in the second leg, scored twice in the first half, Militão sent an own goal, Alvarez came off the bench, and the Blue Moon finally beat Real Madrid 4-0, reaching the Champions League final for the second time in history with a 5-1 aggregate scoreline, but never won the title, the first time in 2021, losing to Chelsea to finish runners-up.
Head-to-head record
Inter are Europe's traditional giants, while Manchester City are upstarts who have only risen in the last decade or so, so the two teams have never met in an official European competition, let alone in the knockout stages of the Champions League!
In other words, this is the first narrow meeting between the blue and black and the blue moon, that is, to appear on the most important stage such as the Champions League final, it is really full of suspense, anything can happen!
Final time
This season's Champions League final will be played at 22 p.m. local time on June 10 and 3 a.m. Beijing time on June 11 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
The stadium hosted the 2005 Champions League final, and Liverpool staged a miraculous comeback on a night in Istanbul, beating AC Milan on penalties to win the title.
This season's Champions League winner automatically qualifies for the group stage of the 2023–24 Champions League and competes in the UEFA Europa Cup 2023 against this season's Europa League winner.