Manchester City: The dream final for Zanetti

Inter Milan are one step away from lift­ing their first Cham­pi­ons League tro­phy since 2010, but they have to face one more obsta­cle: either Man­ches­ter City or Real Madrid.

The Ital­ian giants secured their place in the final with a con­vinc­ing 3–0 aggre­gate win over city rivals AC Milan, thanks to a soli­tary goal from Lau­taro Mar­tinez in the sec­ond leg.

Now, they are wait­ing to see who will join them in Istan­bul on May 29, as City and Real are locked at 1–1 after the first leg of their semi-final.

For Inter vice-pres­i­dent Javier Zanet­ti, a club leg­end who won the tre­ble with them in 2010, there is a clear pref­er­ence: he wants to avoid Real Madrid at all costs.

The Span­ish giants have a his­to­ry of dom­i­nat­ing the Cham­pi­ons League, hav­ing won it a record 14 times, includ­ing five of the last nine editions.

Zanet­ti told Sky Sport Italia: “I’d like to avoid Real Madrid because this com­pe­ti­tion seems made for them. How­ev­er, the most impor­tant thing is to have arrived here. It was a dif­fi­cult path, it’s not easy to play a der­by in the semi-finals. I did and I was defeat­ed in 2003.”

Instead, Zanet­ti would rather face Man­ches­ter City, the new­ly crowned Pre­mier League cham­pi­ons who are aim­ing for their first ever Cham­pi­ons League title.

City have been impres­sive under Pep Guardi­o­la, but they have also shown some vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty in Europe, hav­ing nev­er reached the final before.

Zanet­ti believes that Inter have what it takes to beat them, espe­cial­ly with their star strik­er Mar­tinez in top form.

The Argen­tine has scored eight goals in nine games, and Zanet­ti praised him for his improve­ment and impor­tance for the team.

He said: “I’m so hap­py for him. He improves every year with us. He’s a ref­er­ence point for the team and we keep him because he’s too important.”

“For now, he stays here, then we’ll see. Let’s enjoy this win. He’s hap­py here, where he found his home. He’s hap­py in Milan and I hope it will last a long time.”

Inter have been out­stand­ing in this season’s Cham­pi­ons League, top­ping a group that includ­ed Bay­ern Munich and Barcelona, then knock­ing out Por­to, Ben­fi­ca and Milan.

Zanet­ti cred­it­ed the team and the coach, Simone Inza­ghi, for their incred­i­ble achievement.

He said: “It was tough but we’ve done an incred­i­ble thing. Cred­it goes to the team and coach, who react­ed well in dif­fi­cult moments.”

“He [Inza­ghi] hasn’t spo­ken much but proved wor­thy of the final.”