JUST before midnight on a balmy night in Istanbul the moment Manchester City had craved for so long arrived.
The door to European nirvana that had remained stubbornly shut for so long finally swung open and through it the euphoric and relieved - English champions gratefully stepped.
A team that has made so many pretty patterns with their play on their march to a Treble will not care that their first Champions League triumph was pig ugly.
The performance was light years away from the semi-final secondleg masterclass that saw Real Madrid swept away at the Etihad. They rode their luck in the closing stages but all that mattered to them is they did it.
At last.
The scale of the occasion and the size of the opportunity for Manchester City - brought a rare visit from the club's owner Sheikh Mansour.
Incredibly, it was only the second time the Abu Dhabi Deputy Prime Minister had watched the club in the flesh since he bought them in 2008. The previous occasion was in 2010 when City beat Liverpool 3-0 at The Etihad.
He prefers, on the whole, to watch games back at home. You would imagine, with an £18bn personal fortune, he has a decent television set and a comfy chair but his reticence is surprising given the scale of his investment.
This story is from the June 11, 2023 edition of Sunday Express.
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This story is from the June 11, 2023 edition of Sunday Express.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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