The view from Italy on Manchester City's Champions League win

Manchester City have started their journey back to Manchester as they celebrate winning the Champions League and the treble. Our reporter Alan Irwin is already at the Etihad Stadium. He's beaten them there. We can join him now. Hi, Alan. Yeah, good morning once again. We've heard very much from the Manchester City perspective this morning on how it feels to be champions of Europe for the very first time. But interestingly, now we're going to get the Italian perspective because I'm joined by Sky Sports Italian journalist Filippo Bianincampe. Filippo, great to see you. Maybe not so great from the Italian perspective. I think in England we expected Manchester City to beat Inter Milan but Inter Milan certainly put up a fantastic fight, didn't they? Yeah, definitely, Alan. We were expecting Manchester City to win the Champions League too, obviously the greatest team in Europe at the moment. But we were quite surprised. I know we shouldn't be, but we were quite surprised by the Inter Milan performance because they've been outstanding. I think Simone Inzaghi, the manager, prepared the game very well. Details can make a difference in a competition like the Champions League. And they were perfect. They had chances to score. They had chances when there was a draw and they had chances at the very end with Di Marco and Lukaku, the main man, in a negative way for Inter Milan. They could have written history for Inter Milan, scoring their goal and bringing the final on the extra time. But you know, this is football. It's very tough. I still remember when Mania Matic said to Paolo Dybala at the end of the other Europa League final, that's football. It's cruel but it's so beautiful because football is like this. I think we often look at statistics here in England and I don't think any of us would have expected Inter to have a better xG than Manchester City and more shots as well. Yeah, I've seen it. It's more than two for Inter Milan, expected goals, and less than one for Manchester City. Amazing. Inter Milan played very well. I think Simone Inzaghi gave this team an attractive and attacking football mentality, which is so good because we were used to seeing Italian teams always be defensive, especially when they face teams that are very well prepared technically and so strong like Manchester City, with a lot of amazing individuals. Inter Milan tried and showed a world they were special too, and Pep Guardiola said at the end of the game, Inter Milan at the moment, the second best team in Europe. There were thousands of Inter fans in Istanbul, but there are thousands back in Milan at the San Siro watching and obviously feeling the pain. How will they be feeling when they wake up this morning? Yeah, I think it's painful, obviously. It's a final. You always expect to make history, even though you are the underdog. Inter Milan were crying, obviously, but at the end they cheered. They gave the team a big applause because they really deserved it. I think the last two months for Inter Milan have been outstanding because their season wasn't very good all the time. They lost nine games in a single season in Serie A, which is a lot. They were competing to win the league last season and they lost against their rivals AC Milan. This season, the gap was too huge for a team like Inter Milan, but the last two months have been outstanding. They get AC Milan knocked out in the semi-final. Huge derby, huge rivalry, so huge memories for Inter Milan for the future. Obviously, they can be proud of themselves, even though they didn't succeed to win the Champions League. As far as Italian football is concerned, it's three Italian teams beaten in three European finals in the space of 10 days. Yeah, yeah, it's a trouble, we can tell that. Joking apart, I think they've been very good this season and it was a good season for Italian football. We've seen them missing the big chances, the big finals in the past years. I'm not saying Italian football is back at the level we used to see Italian football, but they're on their way. They're on their way. Fiorentina, unlucky probably in the final against West Ham, but credit to West Ham, obviously. Roma lost on penalties and Inter Milan competed with the best team in the world. So, you know, fair play to them. Does this elevate the status of Sabody and Zaghi? He got his game plan almost spot on yesterday. He certainly kept Erling Haaland quiet and as we talked about there, having more shots on target is quite something against the Manchester City side that have dominated English football recently. I mean, he's very well prepared and he knows Pep Guardiola is always very scared of transitions and Inter Milan are very good on transitions. So probably the biggest players missed the game yesterday. So like Dzeko, Lautaro, Lukaku in the second half, we could expect a bit more from them, but the team spirit and the team, the game plan was perfect. But we've said in the days before, be careful when your lines are too low because Manchester City have got solutions from outside. We've seen with Rodri scoring the goal and we've seen De Bruyne against Real Madrid. So we always talk about Haaland, how good he is scoring-wise, probably the best player in the world at the moment. But if you keep Haaland and he keeps the defender low, then Manchester City have a lot of options with De Bruyne, Rodri, Grealish and Foden. So a lot of good shooters. So yeah, the game was won in that precise moment. But again, very fair play to Inter Milan. They played amazingly yesterday. We couldn't expect something better, honestly. And just finally, how are Manchester City viewed over in Italy now, given their dominance, as we say, of the Premier League of late? Aliens. I'm saying Aliens because they're amazing and we've seen them in the Champions League this season. They really made a step of mentality. We've seen them against Bayern Munich, 3-0. We've seen them against Real Madrid, 4-0. Probably the first half was the best Pep Guardiola's football we've ever seen in our life, because it was pure football, magical. And Inter Milan, we know the level of the Serie A at the moment is not as good as the Premier League. So we were wondering, can the third in the league handle the pressure and handle a game against Manchester City? The answer was yes. And I think this is a good achievement. It's not lifting a trophy, but Simon Inzaghi, amazing manager, he will do a lot of great things. Probably, if he wants to spread his horizons, he can try and experience abroad, maybe in England. Maybe. There's always a vacancy or two in the Premier League after a couple of months, once the season has got underway. Filippo, thanks very much for your time. That's the Italian perspective and you can hear straight from the horse's mouth that Manchester City are just viewed as real champions. Champions of Europe is what they are. Thanks, Alan.