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Gündogan’s instant moment of beauty demonstrates worth to Manchester City

This was perhaps the perfect way to win it, the perfect way to confirm Manchester City’s status as the defining domestic force of the age and all-round era-machine.

The words used to describe this team, the semantic field of Pep-era City tend to be mechanical. City are a juggernaut, a steamroller, a fully operational death star. They completed the league and Cup double here with a couple of moments of routine, mid-30s brilliance from a footballer who looks less like a visitor from the footballing future, more like a cuddly pirate.

Enter Ilkay Gündogan, still killing them softly, seven years into his time at City. This was not Gündogan’s last game for the club. That will probably be next Saturday in Istanbul. It is easy to forget he was Guardiola’s first signing, that he has been present in every version of this team and yet always seems somehow a surprise, a bonus element.

So it was here, where Gündogan did something astonishing but still oddly everyday. It is hard to think of another footballer who could score the fastest Cup final goal with his right foot, a moment of pure footballing beauty, then score the winner with his left in the second half, run the midfield battle in between, and manage all this while operating under that familiar anti-radar cloak.

The opening goal will come to stand as its defining moment, another clip for that fond old moth-eaten all-time highlights reel. It took just less than 13 seconds from kick off and came, in classic Pep style, from the launched ball in search of flick-on, second ball and position of maximum opportunity.

Stefan Ortega’s clumped clearance was headed up in the air. The ball bounced. Victor Lindelöf tried to nod it clear but saw his clearance deflect off Kevin De Bruyne,

Read more on theguardian.com