Rodri scored plenty of important goals during his seven years at City, but none will come close to the one that beat Inter Milan in Istanbul.
His strike in the 2023 Champions League final secured City’s first European Cup and completed the Treble under Pep Guardiola. Three years later, and with Rodri now at Barcelona, his memories of that night have resurfaced in a new GOAL feature looking back at City’s rise to the top of European football.
The midfielder had spoken about the goal before leaving the Etihad during the summer, describing what it meant to be the player who finally ended City’s long wait for the Champions League.
Rodri on the goal that won Man City the Champions League
“It was a dream that we were pursuing all these years,” Rodri told City Studios. “The idea of the club was to go in that direction to be the best club in the world.”
City’s Champions League near-misses were already familiar by the time they reached Istanbul. Guardiola’s side had lost the 2021 final to Chelsea before going out to Real Madrid in dramatic circumstances in the semi-finals the following season.
Rodri felt those setbacks added to what happened against Inter.
“To complete this story with the way we did it and of course with the goal and [show] that we could stand up for difficult situations like the previous one we lost, it was just incredible,” he said. “Arriving to this Champions League win with my goal was very special.”
Rodri’s 68th-minute finish proved to be the only goal of the final. He was subsequently named UEFA’s Player of the Match as City added the Champions League to the Premier League and FA Cup they had already won.
The Spaniard remained at the Etihad for another three seasons before joining Barcelona in the summer. He left having made 298 appearances for City and won 14 major trophies, as well as the 2024 Ballon d’Or.
City now look very different from the side that played in Istanbul, with Enzo Maresca having succeeded Guardiola and the midfield undergoing major changes during the summer.
Rodri’s place in the club’s history was already secure before he left Manchester, but Istanbul supplied the image that will probably endure longest.
He called City’s first Champions League triumph “the climax of the process”.
For the man who scored the winning goal, it is hard to argue with that description.
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