Manchester City achieve Champions League dream by overcoming the constant causes of their nightmares

Pep Guardiola played around, but this time his side got over the hump

John Stones jinks and feints. Drawing two Inter defenders in his direction, he eases the ball out from under his feet, working for that scintilla of space for a pass or a shot. For a center back, this was something quite magnificent. For a center back.

That rather typifies the night Manchester City entered the echelon of Europe's greatest sides. Only the best of the best win their league, domestic cup and the Champions League. For so many -- Bayern Munich in 2013, Manchester United in 1999 -- the final step is the toughest of all. None, however, have matched City's ability to make it so much more difficult for themselves than it needed to be.

Inter were an obdurate, energetic opponent who took a masochistic joy in letting City have the ball, their man-to-man press discombobulating their opposition in the early stages. When Ederson and his defenders wavered in possession, Simone Inzaghi's men pounced. Lautaro Martinez had Pep Guardiola on his knees only for the Argentine's decision-making to let him down. At the death, they even had the chances they so infrequently forged for themselves beforehand, Romelu Lukaku awfully unlucky to find himself the fall guy.