Manchester City meet Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League final this weekend, with club football’s biggest prize at stake in the first ever meeting between the teams.

Pep Guardiola’s side are one win from winning a Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble, against an Inter Milan side hoping to be crowned European champions for a fourth time.

Ahead of the Champions League final, we remember five of Manchester City’s best wins against Italian clubs.

Five of Manchester City’s best wins against Italian sides.

Manchester City 1-0 Juventus (1977)

Manchester City are beginning to build a modern history in continental competition, but the club’s first ventures into Europe began in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Citizens were regulars in Europe after a maiden appearance in the European Cup in 1968/69, before lifting the Uefa Cup Winners’ Cup the following season.

City met Italian opposition for the first time during the first round of the 1976/77 UEFA Cup, after being drawn to face Juventus. The Turin side were still without a European trophy having lost the European Cup Final in 1973, but had a side built to compete in the competition.

City secured a narrow first-leg win however, with Brian Kidd heading past Dino Zoff to send Maine Road into celebration. Tony Book’s team held on to secure a memorable victory, but were unable to progress as Juventus staged a second-leg fightback to reach the second round.

The Italians – whose side contained several of Italy’s 1982 World Cup winning team – went on to win the UEFA Cup after beating Athletic Bilbao in the final.

Manchester City 3-0 AC Milan (1979)

Manchester City faced AC Milan in the UEFA Cup two seasons later and again produced another fine performance to win on home soil.

The first-leg had ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw at the San Siro, a fixture that saw City take a two-goal lead before a Milan fightback saw the game finish all square. The original game had been postponed and played the following day, after the conditions were deemed unplayable due to heavy fog.

City took confidence from the first leg and blew away their Italian visitors in the return. Tony Book’s side raced into a three-goal lead before half-time to put the result beyond doubt, with Tommy Booth opening the scoring after heading past Enrico Albertosi.

Asa Hartford’s fine strike doubled the advantage, before Brian Kidd nodded in a third as the hosts ran riot at Maine Road. City progressed 5-2 on aggregate and reached the competition’s quarter-finals before defeat to eventual winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.

AS Roma 0-2 Manchester City (2014)

Manchester City progressed into the Champions League’s last 16 after a winner-takes-all showdown in Rome.

Roma and City went into their final group stage fixture level on points, as the two teams looked to reach the knockout rounds alongside group winners Bayern Munich.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side had looked to be crashing out of the competition after failing to win in their opening four group games, but back-to-back wins over Bayern and Roma saw them through.

Samir #Nasri fête ses 3⃣2⃣ ans ce mercredi
En cadeau, son but avec @ManCityFra contre la Roma en décembre 2014
Une sacrée mine poteau rentrant ! #LdC #UCL pic.twitter.com/7tef39oZAH

— L’UEFA (@UEFAcom_fr) June 26, 2019

Joe Hart made fine saves from Gervinho and Kostas Manolas with the game goalless in Rome, before Samir Nasri opened the scoring at the Stadio Olimpico with a stunning strike.

Pablo Zabaleta completed a fine team performance and a first-ever away win in Italy for the club after sliding home a finish from Nasri’s pass.

Napoli 2-4 Manchester City (2017)

Sergio Aguero stole the headlines as the forward became Manchester City’s all-time record goalscorer during a thrilling tie at Napoli.

Napoli began the game the better side and took a deserved lead when Lorenzo Insigne combined with Dries Mertens to open the scoring, but City levelled before the break via a Nicolas Otamendi’s header.

John Stones crashed a header in off the crossbar to hand City the lead just three minutes in the second half, only for Jorginho’s confident penalty to restore parity once more.

Then came the milestone moment for Aguero, who fired home his 178th City goal to move past Eric Brook’s club record. Raheem Sterling wrapped up the win and confirmed City’s passage to the last 16.

Manchester City 5-1 Atalanta (2019)

Raheem Sterling was in electric form as Manchester City thrashed Atalanta in 2019.

Atalanta had reached the Champions League for the first time after a free-scoring season in Serie A, but were exposed on a humbling evening at the Etihad.

The Italians had taken the lead through Ruslan Malinovsky’s penalty, but Sergio Aguero’s brace turned the game around for the home side before half-time. Sterling then took centre stage after the break, scoring an 11-minute hat-trick as the Citizens recorded an emphatic win.

Sterling scored three, created one and won a penalty for Sergio Aguero to convert, with Pep Guardiola calling the winger ‘an extraordinary, extraordinary player’ after the winger’s destructive performance.

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The post Five of Manchester City’s best wins against Italian sides first appeared on The Football Faithful.