INTERVIEW Adika-Paul Campbell | PHOTOGRAPHY Alex Pantling

What are you looking forward to most about playing in the Super Cup? 

This is going to be my first [Super Cup], so I’m really hungry to win it. It’s a new trophy for me. My ambition couldn’t be bigger. It’s just like the Community Shield and the FIFA Club World Cup. They’re competitions we really want to win. We want to leave our mark on each of them. Obviously, the same goes for the Super Cup. 

Take us back to the training session at the stadium in Istanbul on the day before the final against Inter. City looked very relaxed; there was a sense of fun, you were all laughing and joking. Is it always like that, or was there a reason why you were so calm this time around? 

I guess that in the previous final [against Chelsea in 2021] you could have felt that sense of fun too. Above all, that’s because we believe that part of being well prepared is reducing our concentration level at that moment and just enjoying the training session. Obviously, that was the day before the match, so everything had already been said and done. That day, more than anything, was about experiencing that moment, knowing that the big event, the final, would come the next day. 

It was a scrappy game to start with – a little bit tense and anxious in the first half, or so it seemed. What did Pep say to you at half time, and how did he get you to play more fluidly in the second half? 

With it being a final, the game was never going to be easy. Obviously, like any other match, if you manage to score goals, things get much easier, but the occasion meant the match was never going to be that simple. For sure, half time was an important moment for us. We had to understand what we were doing, what we were not doing, and the space we had to use to make the game a bit easier for us. 

In the final stages of the match, Inter had some big chances. They hit the bar, Ederson made some important saves, Romelu Lukaku maybe should have scored. Being a defender, what were you feeling during those moments when you were under pressure? 

Every big achievement, every big competition that’s really worth winning is made of those tough moments that involve all aspects of the game. It could be our ability or their ability, or even a bit of luck that makes the difference in the end. Above all, we knew we were playing against a very tough side. With the score at 1-0, we knew it was going to be a fight until the very end, and it was. We had to endure for the rest of the match, and I think that really sums up our win.