Manchester United fans are team Inter this weekend as they hope the Italians can prevent Manchester City matching their unique 1999 treble feat.
The Blues jetted off to Istanbul five days after beating the Reds in the FA Cup final on Saturday following their Premier League trophy lift a fortnight earlier. They are now, as a result, just one win away from claiming their own treble.
They are heavier favourites to achieve the triple-crown than United were against Bayern Munich 24 years ago with Inter the surprise package to make this year’s showpiece. United’s treble winners are hoping the Serie A side can bring one more unexpected result, although many have doffed their cap to Guardiola’s powerhouse this season.
Here is what some of them have said about City amid their treble hunt.
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Roy Keane
[Speaking to Sky Sports]
"They haven’t [won a Treble yet], they’re an amazing team and they’ve got an important few weeks coming up. They’re clear favourites to get it done, but they still have to go and do it.
"The game has changed and I suppose they’ve probably got a bigger squad [than United in 1999]. They’ve got probably more internationals involved, when you look at the players coming off the bench."
Gary Neville
[The Times]
"Do I want City to win the treble? No! No! No, I don’t. Nobody wants City to win the treble if you’re a Manchester United fan.
"But if they do... you’d just have to hold your hands up and say, ‘This manager and this group of players have achieved something unique.’"
David Beckham
[FA media]
"I said to Noel [Gallagher] the other day even if you guys [City] go on to win the trophy today and the Champions League and they do do the treble, obviously that’s a special thing for any club to do.
"But there’s only one club that can ever win the first time - and we were that club. So in all honesty, as a United fan, if these guys get to win the treble, that feeling as a player of lifting all three trophies and creating history, that was an amazing thing.
"We were all hometown players that had lived and breathed United all the way through and then to win the treble, the way we won it, and also for the first time, can never be done again.
"But that moment of lifting all three trophies and doing the treble, you always want others to feel that. So if these guys get to do that then it’s an amazing moment for them but there’s only one team that’s won for the first time."
Teddy Sheringham
"I wouldn't hold it against them! I know I'm an ex-Red and I don't want them to do it. But if they did, you would just have to hold your hands up and say they've been absolutely phenomenal.
"It's been like watching poetic football - the way they've played this year. They would absolutely deserve to do the treble as well."
Dwight Yorke
"I understand why there is a big uproar. The fact they are trying to emulate and equal what we did. They're not surpassing anything.
"They're joining an elite group of players and a club with a historical moment. If they go on to do it, you just have to take your hat off to them.
"So it would be equals-pequals. That seems like the fairest way to look at it. After all, it is literally the exact same achievement."
Jaap Stam
"They showed all the traits of a team that had learned their lessons, gaining a 1-1 draw in Madrid thanks to Kevin De Bruyne's goal and then producing one of the finest performances ever seen by an English club in Europe to thrash Real 4-0 at home.
"If City fans didn't already believe this was their time, that display would have convinced them. It would be wrong to say Inter are pushovers but it feels like City have already done the hard work.
"So as with the other two competitions, United's 1999 vintage excelled for pure drama and spectacle, while this season's City have resembled an unstoppable express train."
Nicky Butt
[ESPN]
"They [City] are an amazing football team. Whoever wins the treble, I'll be a bit gutted about it, but if they're doing it in the right way, playing the right way, then fair play to them.
"The project that they've had over the last 15 years, from when they took over, they have changed all the fundamentals in the local area.
"The owners are putting money into the local community, building houses. I'm the biggest Red you'll ever meet, but you can never say it's not an amazing project that they have put together.
"They brought in a manager that's certainly in the top three ever in my opinion, and they're playing unbelievable football. They're probably going to win the title, they're into the FA Cup final against United and they're looking good in the Champions League, so you'd have to say they've got a real chance of winning all three.
"The way they play football and what they do, you can't not say they're good. They're very, very good. So if they win it, well done. Good luck to them, but I don't think they'll do it in a style we did it in."
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