The Final Preview – Randy Savage

The Final Preview – Randy Savage

by | May 23, 2023 | General

The dust settles in the battle of the giants hotly contested over two ties and two legs in the greatest club competition on earth. After a blistering 2 weeks of top-tier football, the sun sets on two teams while a whole new realm of possibilities opens up for the other two…one this is for certain however, a new Champions League winner will emerge when Manchester City and Inter Milan face off in Istanbul, Turkey on June 10th, 2023. The story surrounding these developments is as follows: The San Siro tale of two sides and Glory in Manchester.

San Siro; Tales of Two Sides

(Inter Milan players celebrating their derby win)
The allegory of red and blue, good and evil, life and death is perhaps a fitting proclamation of two game days held in the San Siro in Italy over the past two weeks. In both scenarios, the result was the same, Internazionale triumphs over their fiercest rivals to book their place into the next round. It was a tale of woe and sorrow for AC Milan as they crashed out of the competition due to lackluster performances in both legs. Inter Milan scored 3 lovely goals on aggregate whilst Milan was second best at every instance on the pitch.

The final whistle accompanied by the boo’s of the AC fans and the cheers of the Inter fans made the scene quite chaotically poetic. This final meeting cemented Inter as the new face of Milan as they not only triumphed over their rivals twice in the league but also twice in the greatest club competition on Earth. Surely new signings must be made and new tactics developed if they ever hope to repeat this success in the coming years. For Internazionale, it means one simple thing, a must-win game to grant themselves immortals on the murals of their city and the history books of the great winners who came before them.

Glory Glory Manchester

(Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva celebrating his goal against Real Madrid)
One typically hearing the words “glory” and “Manchester” in the same sentence would akin it to the popular song of the Legendary club Manchester United; however on this fateful day we are not referring to the red side of Manchester, we instead congratulate Manchester City on booking a spot in their 2nd ever UCL final! Of course, we all remember the 1-0 defeat that they suffered against Chelsea some years prior, as well as the disappointments experienced with a late flurry of goals against Real Madrid last year. In somewhat poetic justice they beat the same team that beat them last year albeit due to massive luck and key tactical substitutions. This time however it would never be so easy. This Man City team poised for the treble would be a force for this aging Real Madrid side. And my word did the difference between ages captivate the eye? Over two legs and two ties, it was an utter demolition job!

Although the first leg was a draw one could see the clear intent and firepower of this Man City team on their quest for Champions League glory. They came out swinging meanwhile Madrid went defensive. Seemingly the right decision as Vinicius Jr struck home a lovely shot to make it 1-0 before so the game was entirely City’s. In the 2nd half, Madrid bore their fangs but despite this, a strike courtesy of Kevin De Bruyne ensured that there would be all to play for in Manchester. On the day of reckoning, one expected a fierce competition one filled with attacking football and high entertainment. However, in the eyes of neutrals, this was far from being the game they hoped for. Man City physically ran circles around this Real Madrid team who only entered the City box once in the first half. They rarely ever passed the halfway line. City went on to demolish them 4-0 courtesy of goals from Bernardo Silva(2), Julian Alvarez(1) and what was given as an own goal to Eder Militao deflecting off of Manuel Akanji. This performance was reminiscent of the weekly punishments they hand out in the Premier League to all manner of teams.

After the dust settled it will be underdogs Inter Milan VS the favorites Manchester City to conclude the 2022/2023 season of the UEFA Champions League.