Burnley boss Vincent Kompany issues Manchester City verdict ahead of Champions League final

Pep Guardiola’s side take on Internazionale in the final this evening (8pm kick-off) as they eye a famous treble.

Speaking on the latest episode of The Overlap, in partnership with SkyBet, Kompany says he doesn’t expect City’s preparation to change just because of the magnitude of tonight’s encounter.

“It’s a team that has won so much, it will be as calm as you can imagine,” he said.

“They will do everything they have done all season. They will go home, they will play with the kids, they’ll have a bit of a session, they will do some meetings about the opposition and they will go into the game like any other game.

“I think that’s the advantage when you’ve played in a lot of cup finals. You learn that it’s just another game.

“Being in his second Champions League final with City, I just think it’s going to be business as usual.”

City have experienced a strained relationship with the Champions League in recent years.

While they’ve dominated domestically, it’s the one trophy that has eluded them - although that could all change in Istanbul this evening.

“I didn’t enjoy it in the beginning,” Kompany added. “It was bigger for us to win the league and the FA Cup, honestly. But the more you have domestic success the more you want to do it in Europe.

“It was late midweek games in Manchester and yes, you play against some great teams but you also play against some teams that, quite frankly, the supporters don’t care about in the beginning. But we just grew into it.

“We got smashed at the beginning. We played against the Dortmund team under Klopp and they were special. We played against teams like Ajax where you don’t get away with running. They make you work hard, they use the goalkeeper, that wasn’t the case for us at the time.

“There was a difficult period for English clubs in European football at the time, especially with German and Spanish clubs. None of the English clubs were performing.

“But as England always does, there’s more money, they bring over the best and the Premier League is what it is today.”