Man City coach Pep Guardiola feels that Inter Milan’s Simone Inzaghi is a great opponent, having faced him in the Champions League final.
The Cityzens boss spoke about the Nerazzurri coach whilst accepting the award for best coach of 2023 at FIFA’s “The Best” ceremony, via FCInterNews.
Inter coach Inzaghi has not won the honour of best coach in the world in 2023.
That award went to Guardiola. The man who beat Inter and Inzaghi in last season’s Champions League final.
Manchester City won the European Treble under the stewardship of the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Having chased European glory for several seasons under Guardiola, the Cityzens finally got their hands on European club football’s most important trophy.
But they did not do so easily.
Inter went in to last June’s final as major underdogs. The Guardiola’s City were Premier League champions, and arguably the most formidable team in all of the continent.
Meanwhile Inter had finished third in Serie A after a tough season.
Man City Coach Pep Guardiola Full Of Praise For Inter Coach Simone Inzaghi
Guardiola and City beat Inter 1-0 in the end.
It was a second half goal from midfielder Rodri which sealed the deal.
But the scoreline was far from telling the whole story.
Inter went toe-to-toe with City in the first half of the match.
Then in the second, the Nerazzurri had several good chances to score as they frantically pushed for an equalizer following City’s goal.
Guardiola lifted the Champions League trophy for the third time in his career in the end.
But the Spaniard learned just how tough of an opponent Inzaghi is.
Guardiola said, “Congratulations to Luciano for the incredible season with Napoli.”
“You won the Scudetto after many years.”
“And congratulations also to Simone,” he continued.
“Only I know how tough the Champions League final was. It was a wonderful performance by Inter.”
