The dust has settled on Manchester City’s famous FA Cup triumph over Manchester United on Saturday at Wembley. Now the lead up into possibly the biggest week for Manchester City in recent history begins. The chase for the elusive first Champions League crown for Manchester City and a historic Treble reaches its crescendo. Let’s look ahead as to what comes this week in the lead up to the Champions League Final against Inter Milan in Istanbul.
Manchester City’s players have two days off to rest and recover from Saturday’s game. The rest is hard earnt and well deserved. The hard work begins again Tuesday with the players returning to training from their short break. Also there are no injuries to report from the FA Cup final which means Manchester City will have a full squad available to pick from.
On Tuesday Pep Guardiola will have a press conference at the CFA. That will continue the build up to Saturday’s Champions League final. I expect Guardiola to be in fine form here, with what was accomplished on Saturday fresh on his mind, and what comes next also on the agenda. No doubt it will be a must see press conference from Pep, especially with what’s at stake this coming weekend.
Manchester City players and staff then continue their training on Wednesday and again Thursday. The Manchester City players and staff then set off to Istanbul following training Thursday. By then the build up to the Champions League final against Inter Milan will be at fever pitch.
All of that leads into Pep Guardiola’s final press conference on Friday evening. Knowing Guardiola this will be a highlight of the build up to Saturday’s Final. Pep will be ready for the world’s media and likely in fine form. This has been seen in Pep’s recent press conferences of late. Pep Guardiola has been a man on a mission, and I’m expecting that to show again on Friday.
Post Pep’s final press conference the Manchester City players will have a open training session, their final session before the final. This will likely be a relaxed affair with the hard work all done previously in the lead up to the final training session.
While this all takes place during the week, Manchester City fans will begin their trek to Istanbul from Manchester and all around the world. Come Saturday the day of the Final against Inter Milan, Manchester City fans will be all over Istanbul ready for the day and nights festivities. A special time lays ahead for City fans. Especially this week as a historic final against Inter Milan awaits, and a possible Treble on the horizon.
