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8th June 2023
11:41am BST
Manchester City take on Inter Milan in the Champions League final on Saturday as Pep Guardiola’s side aim to win their first European title and complete a domestic treble.
If successful, they will become the English first side since Manchester United in 1999 to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in one season.
There have already been comparisons between the team of 1999 and the current City side but former Man City midfielder Patrick Vieira admitted that he wasn’t sure if they would be the best Premier League side of all time.
Speaking at the launch of Expedia Live’s ‘Soundscape of Being There’ report, which celebrates the iconic sounds of travelling for football ahead of the UEFA Champions League final, he said: “I don’t know if they are the best - I’ll leave it to the specialists to say if they are the best or not - but they will be there with the best.
“I think when you talk about teams who have been really good you have to mention the United side who won the treble in 1999.
“You will have to talk about the Arsenal invincibles so I believe there are teams who did really well previously but this City team is quite special.”
They face difficult opposition in Inter however, who have history in the competition, winning it on three previous occasions.
Having watched Inter this season, Vieira explained what the Premier League champions can expect from Simone Inzaghi’s side.
He said: “I saw Inter play a couple of times this year and they’re a hard team to play against because they are well organised, hard to beat and they’ve got some really good, quality players going forward.
“With Lautaro Martinez with Edin Džeko - Romelu Lukaku from the bench - they have some really, really good players.”
Despite the obvious quality the Serie A side contains, Vieira still believes that it is Man City’s to win and highlighted Kevin De Bruyne as their key player.
“De Bruyne is one of the best who has ever played in the Premier League. He can create goals, he can score goals but what I really like about him is he makes the players around him look really good,” the Frenchman added.
“The number of assists he makes, you can see the pleasure on his face when he assists, to give the last pass and to make people score goals. He is a team player with humility and no ego and that’s why I really like him.”
Vieira even compared him to a former teammate of his. He added: “He reminds me, in his attitude, of a certain Dennis Bergkamp who made the players around him look good, who enjoyed making an assist more than scoring a goal and this is what I like about Kevin.”
Both sides will travel to Istanbul, Turkey, where fans will be able to experience a raucous atmosphere both inside and outside of the stadium.
Manchester City supporters have been named in the top 10 of the loudest and most passionate fan bases from this year’s Champions League so are expected to bring the noise while Inter don’t even make the top 10.
Some of the iconic experiences they will witness include the Grand Bazaar, the Blue Mosque and trying the delicacy, Turkish Delight.
Demands for flights from both sets of supporters have been as high as ever, with the Expedia UK site experiencing a search spike of 590 per cent for flights to Istanbul while there was a 130 per cent increase on the Italian site.
Patrick Vieira was speaking at the launch of Expedia Live’s ‘Soundscape of Being There’ report. For further information and to hear more about the sounds that shaped Vieira’s career, visit Expedia Live: https://www.expedia.co.uk/sports/ucl
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