Peter Crouch believes that Manchester City “look invincible” and has tipped them to be too strong for Inter Milan as Pep Guardiola’s side look to complete the Treble in this Saturday’s Champions League final.
City have already secured the Premier League title after finishing on 89 points, five more than second-placed Arsenal, and beat neighbours Manchester United 2-1 in the FA Cup final earlier this month.
All eyes will now be on the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul this Saturday as The Citizens set out to capture their third trophy of the season and replicate Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side of 1999.
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City are huge favourites to overcome Inter – who beat rivals AC Milan in the semi-final – and BT Sport expert and former Liverpool and England international Crouch believes the Nerazzurri will be powerless to stop them.
“With the Champions League, I’ve been watching Man City every week, and you can’t see anything other than [them winning it],” Peter Crouch told Eurosport’s tennis expert Alex Corretja at the French Open in Paris.
“They’ve won the FA Cup, they’ve won the [Premier] League, and the last one is the Champions League.
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“The last team [to do the treble] was Manchester United, so City could do it this weekend and I just can’t see Inter Milan stopping them.”
City underlined their credentials by brushing aside 14-time winners Real Madrid in the semi-final, beating Carlo Ancelotti’s side 4-0 in the second leg to complete a 5-1 aggregate win.
Crouch continued: “I thought Real Madrid in the semi would’ve been the one, but City rolled them over in the first half, and it was incredible.
“What Pep’s done is build a squad of player that understand his way of thinking. If they don’t, they’ve been moved on.
“Now he’s got such a special team playing the way he wants to play football, and they look invincible, and unbeatable in every single position.
“You have to remember it’s one game, not over two legs. Anything can happen. They might get a man sent off, or something might happen tactically. Inter Milan, of course, have a chance, but I’d put them not favourites.”
Crouch, who also played for Tottenham, Portsmouth and Stoke City, won the FA Cup and Super Cup with Liverpool during his career but lost to 2-1 AC Milan in the Champions League final in 2007.
“If I could go back to one game, it’d be that because we lost in Athens in 2007 with Liverpool, and that was the one [I’d go back to],” he said.
“To stand here as a Champions League winner would be very different.”
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