You can listen to live coverage of the Champions League final on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BBC Sport website, with coverage starting at 18:30 BST on Saturday. Kick-off is at 20:00 BST. Even if Manchester City win the Champions League on Saturday to complete the Treble, Pep Guardiola won’t be totally happy – and it’s Noel Gallagher’s fault.
Gallagher explained to BBC Sport that Guardiola had asked him to bring a guitar to a big game so he could play in the dressing room afterwards. He went to see Guardiola after the Real Madrid game in the semi-finals and told him he couldn’t be at the FA Cup final or the Champions League final, to which Guardiola gave him a look of utter disgust. Gallagher said he was on tour and couldn’t cancel it, to which Guardiola almost launched him out of his office.
Gallagher has already missed City’s first two victory celebrations of what has become a sensational season, and is away touring in the United States when City play Inter Milan in Istanbul. He said his management are told never to book any gigs anywhere in the world around the Champions League final, but he had made plans he couldn’t get out of for the Sunday of the Chelsea game and then Arsenal lost at Nottingham Forest the day before.
Gallagher said that even though he has seen City win so much, he doesn’t care too much about not being at this one, as long as they win it. He said that if the Champions League or European Cup defines greatness then are Steaua Bucharest and Porto really European elite? He said that the best teams don’t always win cups, and Arsenal are lauded as one of the great British clubs of all time but they never won the Champions League and no-one says Arsene Wenger was a failure.
Gallagher added that when you look at how Guardiola has done it and the influence he has had on the game, for anyone to suggest he has failed in English football if he doesn’t pick up the Champions League is an idiot. He said that Pep has influenced every young football coach and therefore they have influenced every young child who plays football, and that’s just a fact, which is a much greater legacy than the Champions League. He expects Inter to give City a tougher game than Manchester United did at Wembley, but believes they will beat them.