Finals, goals and numbers: the facts of Manchester City vs. Inter
Road to Istanbul
— Jun 8th 20233 MIN READING
Everything you need to know about the Istanbul final between the Nerazzurri and the English
PREVIOUS MEETING: INTER'S FINALS
Saturday 10 June will be the sixth European Cup / Champions League final in Inter's history. The Nerazzurri have lifted the trophy on three occasions. More generally, the match at the Atatürk Stadium will be Inter's 11th European final.
Inter and Manchester City have never faced each other in an official match. Furthermore, the Nerazzurri will face an English team in a European final for the first time in their history.
SPIRITED INTER
Inter have shown great spirit and sacrifice during this year's Champions League: the Nerazzurri always show up with grit and aggression. Some statistics show this: Inter have made 129 tackles (most in the competition), 600 duels won (2nd place), 114 interceptions (3rd place) and 684 defensive recoveries (3rd place).
Numbers that testify to the Nerazzurri's extraordinary European campaign.
CLEAN SHEETS
Inter have kept a clean sheet in eight of their 12 matches in this season's Champions League, including five in six matches in the knockout phase. The record belongs to Arsenal, who in the 2005/06 season collected six clean sheets in the knockout stages.
A stat that inevitably credits André Onana: the Nerazzurri goalkeeper is the only player in this Champions League to have played all 1080 minutes available in the competition. Furthermore, the Cameroonian keeper is the goalkeeper has been the best keeper statistically on terms of shot-stopping: out of 16.8 xG, Onana has only conceded 9 goals, therefore an improvement of 7.8.
TORO IN FINALS
Lautaro Martínez has scored four goals in five finals for Inter Milan in all competitions: this season, he scored in both the Supercoppa match against AC Milan and in the final of the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina.
With his goal in the semi-final second leg against AC Milan, Lautaro has now reached 10 goals for Inter in the Champions League, entering the top 5 in Nerazzurri history. Ahead of him are Adriano (14), Cruz (13) and Crespo (11), while he is level with Samuel Eto'o (10).
BIG ROM ON FIRE
In this Champions League Romelu Lukaku has played only 144 minutes and has never started: however, the Belgian striker is the only Inter player to have scored or got an assist in every round he has featured in (goal in the group stage, goal in the round of 16, goal in the quarters, assist in the semi-final).
Moreover, as of the beginning of April, Big Rom and Lautaro are the two players who have been involved in the most goals in the five major European leagues in all competitions. Both have got 15: Lautaro has collected 11 goals and four assists, Lukaku nine goals and six assists. Behind them is Manchester City striker Erling Haaland: in the same period of time, the Norwegian has come up with 10 goals and 4 assists.
THE REFEREE
The referee for Manchester City vs. Inter, the final of the UEFA Champions League 2022/23, will be Poland's Szymon Marciniak.
Marciniak will have Paweł Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz as assistants, the Fourth Official will be István Kovács. VAR will be Tomasz Kwiatkowski, Assistant VAR Bartosz Frankowski.