“I said to her” – Ederson reveals precise prediction of Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League Final | OneFootball

Manchester City’s recently-departed legendary goalkeeper Ederson has revealed he predicted the club’s ending to the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final.

The 31-year-old marked the end of an illustrious eight-year spell in England with the completion of a £12.1 million transfer to Fenerbahce on the final day of the summer transfer window, having been on the bench in each of City’s recent Premier League defeats to Tottenham and Brighton.

Since his £34 million arrival to the Etihad Stadium from Benfica in 2017, Ederson has revolutionised Manchester City’s style of play and played an indispensable role in the way Guardiola has built his title-winning sides that have dominated English football for the last decade.

After failing to engineer a transfer to Saudi Arabia last summer, Ederson has finally been granted his wish of a new challenge after eight decorated years in Manchester, where two of his three children were born and where the goalkeeper formed an integral part of one of the greatest sides the Premier League has ever seen.

In particular, Ederson’s performance in City’s historic triumph in the 2023 UEFA Champions League will forever remain fresh in the minds of the supporters, with the Brazilian enjoying arguably his best season in a Manchester City shirt over the course of the treble-winning year.

Having kept an impressive run of clean sheets at home in City’s knockout games en route to the final – against RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid – the 31-year-old was in net for the Blues in the UEFA Champions League for a second time.

After Manchester City’s heartbreaking loss to Chelsea in the 2021 UEFA Champions League final, many considered the final against Inter Milan in 2023 as City’s moment, wherein Pep Guardiola and his men would be rewarded for their efforts to reach the pinnacle of European football after years of falling short at the cusp of glory.

Ederson marked the most important game he played in a Manchester City shirt with arguably the greatest goalkeeping performance of his career, making a series of crucial saves at key junctures of the game and single handedly keeping the Blues in the tie when Inter Milan were probing for an equaliser in the second half, following Rodri’s opener.

Speaking as part of a final interview before departing Manchester City for Fenerbahce, Ederson told the club’s official media channels of his build-up to the 2023 UEFA Champions League Final, and his remarkable prediction of the evening.

“Wow, what a night. It was a long, long day. The game was in the night and in the morning I was very nervous. I practised yoga and meditation.

“I spoke to my psychologist. She said to me to imagine the final and when the game has finished. This was five days before the match.”

With City holding on to a narrow lead into injury time, Inter called upon goalkeeper Andre Onana to attack as they gambled all their chips to force a leveller from a corner. That was not to be, with Ederson fulfilling his own prophecy and retaining a clean sheet as he brilliantly parried away a header for the referee to blow the full-time whistle.

“I said to her (the psychologist), we are winning 1-0 and in the last moment of the game they cross, I punch and the game finishes. I imagined that and the game was quite the same.

“There was a cross, header and I make the save. After I said that she put that in me and it was realised. What a day, what a season.”