Join Manchester City, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, PSV, Ajax, Celtic and Inter as the only treble winners across Europe; Of the nine triples in history, five have come since 2009
11:13, UK, Sunday 11 June 2023
Man City beat Inter Milan to become the eighth European club to win the continental treble. What kind of company do they own?
Barcelona and Bayern Munich both won their first trebles this century, but each has repeated the feat more recently, with five of the nine clean sweeps across the continent coming since 2009.
Before that, Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary Manchester United 1999 side were the only team since Guus Hidding’s PSV 11 years earlier to win all three trophies in the same season.
Here’s the full roll call of Manchester City’s combined squads – and how the previous history-makers managed it.
2012/13 and 2019/20 – Bayern Munich
When Hansi Flick took over at Bayern Munich in November 2019, he inherited an ailing squad that had underperformed under his former boss Niko Kovac. A year later, he won everything with them. Nineteen wins and a draw from their final 20 Bundesliga matches marked an astonishing run of domestic form to win the league at a canter, and they also made light work of Europe.
Robert Lewandowski plundered 55 goals at the end of the campaign, but Kingsley Coman finally found the continental triumph in their 1-0 win over PSG, making it 11 wins of the season. Champions League matches leading up to the trophy.
It followed the historic Jupp Heynckes’ side from seven years earlier, who achieved the first feat in German history. It includes some of the club’s most famous players in recent years, including Philipp Lahm, Toni Kroos and Franck Ribery.
Heynckes’ side led the Bundesliga on every matchday and, little surprise, their 91-point season broke the German top-flight record and still stands today. Europe proved a tricky test, winning their group only on goal difference from Valencia and needing away goals to beat Arsenal in the last 16. Beyond that, things got pretty easy, beating Juventus 4-0 and thrashing Barcelona 7-0. Two legs before beating Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund in their only German Champions League final at Wembley.
2009/10 – Inter Milan
Given their country’s proud football history, Jose Mourinho’s Inter were Italy’s only treble holders and a big summer transfer from Pep Guardiola’s successful Barcelona the year before played a big part.
A strike partnership of Samuel Eto’o – swapped with Barca for Zlatan Ibrahimovic – and Diego Milito made Inter proud in Europe. No Mourinho team would be complete without a strong defence, and the Brazilian duo of Julio Cesar in goal and Lucio at centre-back provided that.
The semi-finals are often the real defining moment for any Champions League-winning team, and so it proved again, as Mourinho overcame rival Guardiola and his Barcelona side 3-2 to beat Bayern 2-0 on aggregate. .
2008/09 and 2014/15 – Barcelona
What a way Guardiola chose to announce himself to the world of football management in his first two trebles. After a year in charge of their B team, the former Barca midfielder stepped up to the top job and took La Liga and Europe by storm.
With a midfield trio of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets formed and Lionel Messi at his peak, they won the title and were beaten by Samuel Eto’o in the knockout rounds of the Champions League with a goal in each half. o And Messi was good enough to beat Man Utd in Italy in the 2008/09 final.
Guardiola’s side didn’t quite have the same pizzazz as Guardiola’s side in the 2014/15 rematch, but Luis Enrique’s MSN trio of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar weren’t far behind and scored 122 goals between them in all competitions.
After wrestling top spot in La Liga from Real Madrid in February, they won 12 of their last 14 games to take the title by two points, their highlight in Europe a 5-3 win over Guardiola’s Bayern Munich before beating Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. Juventus had an easy time in the Berlin final.
1998/99 – Manchester United
Until this weekend, Ferguson’s side were the only team to win all three trophies in the same season, unrivaled in English history and in uniquely dramatic fashion. Heading into injury time of their Champions League final, Bayern Munich’s penultimate game of the season, Mario Baszler’s sixth-minute goal looked like they would concede the set. But then, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stepped up and you know what happened next.
His winner went down in United and English football folklore, but there were many such moments throughout the season – including United’s 3-1 aggregate comeback to Juventus in the final hour of the Champions League semi-second leg. In both the final and the FA Cup, Dennis Bergkamp’s late penalty miss prevented Arsenal from reaching the final at their expense.
1987/88 – PSV
While PSV winning the European Cup seemed like a once-in-a-generation moment, a young Hidding’s feats were nothing short of that of a number of players who would go on to win the European Championship with the Netherlands that summer.
In the league, they scored 117 goals, but in Europe they were built from behind and they did not win a game within 90 minutes beyond the second round.
Ronald Koeman was the constant household name, but goalkeeper Hans van Brueghelen and captain Erik Geretz played key roles in defence, and forward 37-year-old Willy van der Kerkhof helped 'total football’ the Netherlands reach the 1978 World Cup a decade later. Cup final.
1971/72 – Ajax
At one stage, the Dutch were treble kings of Europe, with PSV’s victory adding to Ajax’s all-conquering 1972 side. Somehow they fared better than they did the year before, under legendary former boss Rinus Michaels, with Stefan Kovacs leading them to glory on all fronts.
Michaels brought total football to Amsterdam and he left Kovacs for the win. He took over a team that was already European champions after defeating Panathinaikos in the 1971 final.
They’ve won 26 of their last 27 league games, and although they needed extra-time to beat Den Haag in the KNVB Cup final, there were no such problems in Europe with a 2-0 win over Inter in the European Cup final – with none other than Johan Cruyff scoring both goals. – enough to easily end their biggest campaign.
1966/67 – Celtic
As the Scottish League Cup also returned to Parkhead, legendary status seemed insufficient for Jack Stein, whose Celtic side of 1967 won not only the continental treble but the quadruple.
They lost just twice in the league all season and won the Old Firm against Rangers in the League Cup final before writing themselves into eternal Celtic history as the 'Lisbon Lions’ against Inter in the European Cup final in Portugal.
Stevie Chalmers’ goal sealed a 2-1 win at the Estadio Nacional as Celtic not only became the first Scottish team to win the European Cup to date – but also all others.