Man City put fans through the wringer before finally landing Champions League title

Years of frustration and near-misses were encapsulated in a nerve-shredding final in Istanbul

Manchester City fans celebrate winning the Champions League at Manchester's 4TheFans Fan Park. Reuters

Manchester City’s first foray in the European Cup started and ended in Turkey, 55 years ago, with a humbling opening round defeat to Fenerbahce. It took another 43 years for City to return to Europe’s elite competition, a further decade to reach a final. And then another two for the side to win one.

For some fans, me included, there’s something typically City about the journey to European glory starting and ending in Istanbul. Perhaps the destination point – to get back to where it all began all those years ago – was hidden in plain sight all along.

And it had to be done the hard way, didn’t it?

After a season in which City have routinely played scintillating football, destroying European giants Real Madrid and Bayern Munich along the way to get within touching distance of a historic treble, this was an evening for finding a way – any way would do – to get over the line.

The first half was cagey. Erling Haaland went close when played in by Kevin de Bruyne, who would succumb to a hamstring injury minutes later. The Belgian midfielder was forced to withdraw from European football’s greatest game once again, two years after leaving a final in tears.

Inter Milan pressed and harried City to a standstill, forcing error after uncharacteristic error from the Manchester club.

The second half started in a similar vein. And then it happened.

Bernardo Silva’s deflected cross ended up in an acre of space near the Inter penalty spot with Rodri running on to it.

It had to be him, the normally faultless Spaniard had been enduring, by his very high standards, a slightly below-par evening in Istanbul, before he struck the shot that sent City fans wild.

Two, three, four Inter chances to equalise came and went in the remaining 20 minutes.

Champions League final player ratings

The highlights package will be tough to watch for fans of the Italian club and to see again how close their team came to clawing their way back into the tie. Ederson made save after save, somehow the rest of the City defence stood firm. Shots and clearances ricocheted to safety, and City’s goal lived a charmed life.

And then the final whistle went.

The Ataturk Olympic Stadium, once the venue for the greatest comeback in Champions League final history – by Liverpool in 2005 against Inter’s neighbours, AC Milan – was now the finishing post for the final leg of Manchester City’s long and winding journey from European vision to champions.

For years, European glory had seemed an impossible dream. Season after season, City foundered on heartbreak ridge in the Champions League, finding new ways to lose, or rather, not to win the trophy that had begun to become an obsession.

There were several years in the middle where it looked like winning the Champions League was something other teams did, but not us. Particularly so after stinging defeats in consecutive years in Lisbon, Porto and Madrid. These only served to salt the wounds of the previous years when City had been knocked out by domestic rivals.

But now the race has been won and a different question needs answering: what does it feel like to finally land the biggest club trophy of them all?

Messages from friends in Istanbul and elsewhere have been short but unmistakably proud. Trophy emojis have crisscrossed the world in the past few hours in streams of WhatsApp messages.

One note, sent by a friend in those feverish minutes between the final whistle and the trophy lift, said just this: “I feel very emotional right now”. And that is how I suspect, most City fans will feel on Sunday morning.

Almost as soon as Rodri’s exquisite shot struck the back of the net, all the long-held fear and frustration began to disappear.

Now, there is the satisfaction at mission accomplished and the pulsing emotion of the memory of a glorious night of football.