Manchester City has become the second English team to ever win the Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.
Rodrigo Hernández’s 68th-minute strike was enough for Pep Guardiola’s side to complete a historic treble, having also won the Premier League and FA Cup titles.
Rodri fired in from a Bernardo Silva cutback midway through the second half at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium to decide a game in which City were knocked out of their usual rhythm and lost Kevin De Bruyne to injury.
Erling Haaland, scorer of 52 goals this season, went a fifth straight match without finding the net, but City still had enough to edge out opponents who had never been expected to get this far in the first place.
Having already claimed a fifth Premier League title in six seasons, and added the FA Cup, City are the first English club to win such a treble since Manchester United in 1999.
City have now established themselves as England’s dominant side and have finally added the biggest prize in European club football, two years after losing to Chelsea in their first final.
The match was watched by owner Sheikh Mansour, who made a very rare appearance at a City game as his team capped their rise from also rans to superpower in the years since he bought the club in 2008.
Twelve years after last lifting the trophy with Barcelona, meanwhile, Guardiola joins an elite club of coaches to have won the Champions League three times.
Yet having brushed aside RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid to reach the final, City did not have it easy against Inter, who saw Federico Dimarco and substitute Romelu Lukaku both almost equalise late on.
Inter had hoped to spring a surprise and lift the trophy for the fourth time. It was not to be, but Simone Inzaghi’s side will be back in the competition again next season.
Victory for Guardiola’s men, to go with the three titles of rivals United, means Manchester becomes just the second city to produce two different winners of the competition, after Milan.
The occasion did not match the drama of the last Champions League final held at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium. Liverpool triumphed here in 2005, recovering from a three goal deficit against AC Milan to draw 3-3 before winning on penalties.
Manuel Akanji’s pass found Silva in the box and his cutback came off an Inter defender before falling for Rodri to fire in.
It was a second goal in the competition for the key Spanish midfielder following his brilliant opener against Bayern in the first leg of the quarterfinal.
Inter’s resistance was broken, and yet they nearly levelled almost immediately as a Dimarco header hit the bar.
They nearly did so again in the 88th minute as Ederson somehow got in the way of a goal-bound Lukaku effort.
After coming so close in recent Champions League campaigns, finally it was City’s time.