Last weekend in Istanbul came to the end of the European season- 2022/23. In the final of the UEFA Champions League English «Manchester City» justified the status of the favorite and beat the Italian «Inter» with a minimum score. The only goal in the second half was scored by the Spanish midfielder Rodri.
Not only did the “citizens” win the Champions League for the first time in their history, but the grand English Premier League (EPL) scored a treble, which, obviously, was not in the annals of the team either . In one season, the guys of Josep Guardiola took the gold of the championship and the FA Cup, plus they finally became the best in the main club tournament of the Old World. Can you name a club that would be more successful than City?
In total, there were ten seasons at the end of which fans witnessed a treble. Let's make a reservation right away that we provide statistics on the winners of the European Cup/Champions League. This is important to note, because a number of football sites take victory in any European Cup as one of the components of the treble (for example, CSKA of the 2005 model appears in the Transfermarkt list, which brought the UEFA Cup to Russia for the first time).
Let's pay attention to last century:
- 1967/»Celtic«;
- 1972/»Ajax«;
- 1988/PSV Eindhoven;
- 1999/Manchester United».
But what teams, in addition to Manchester City, won the national championship and the cup in one season, and also took the “big-eared” Champions League trophy in the new century.
2009/Barcelona Curly captain Carles Puyol, the Catalan trio Xavi — Iniesta — Busquets, young Lionel Messi and Pedro with the most experienced Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o … In the first season of the young coach Guardiola at Barça, the Catalans conquered all tournaments, representing a completely new vision of football called “tiki-taka” to the world.
Leo won his first Ballon d'Or at the end of the year, and the Spaniard, who abandoned Ronaldinho and Deco, became the youngest coach to win the Champions League.
2010/InterJose Mourinho's last season in Milan was great. The Special has finally perfected his creation, in which almost every position, be it goalkeeper (Julio Cesar), defender (Maicon/Lucio), midfielder (Wesley Sneijder/Javier Zanetti) or forward (Diego Milito/Eto′o), played a football player who is in the prime segment of his career. Not surprisingly, the Nerazzurri conquered Italy, and knocked out Barca and Bayern respectively in the semi-finals and final of the Champions League.
2013/Bayern Munich's 2011/12 season was the worst of the 21st century. The team finished second overall! FC Hollywood was not just left without a championship and a cup — the team of Jupp Heynckes lost to Chelsea in the home Champions League final.
It would seem that it's time to change the coach. But an experienced specialist was left, and Bayern flourished. Not only did the grandee move everyone in Germany (Frank Ribery, Arjen Robben and Thomas Muller took the lead in the Bundesliga from the first round and never fell back to second place), they also snatched victory in the London Champions League final in the last minutes. It is doubly pleasant for the fans that the sworn rivals from Dortmund were defeated at Wembley. =2″ width=»100%» height=»100%» allow=»autoplay; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture;» frameborder=»0″ allowfullscreen=»»>
2015/Barcelona Luis Enrique's first season at the helm of the Catalans. And immediately a crazy basis, in which the crushing attacking trio of Messi — Suarez — Neymar was added to the already mentioned midfield. With such an assembly, «blue garnet» was not equal either in La Liga (only two points ahead of «Real»), or in the Spanish Cup, or in the Champions League. There, MSN and the company, on their way to the trophy, advanced to the playoffs of City, PSG and Bayern, and dealt with Juventus in the Berlin final.
By the way, recently the prestigious ESPN portal recognized Barcelona as a model 2015 by the strongest team to win the treble.