Manchester City already have the Premier League championship in their pocket and now they will have two finals in one week, which if they win could seal an almost perfect campaign with a treble won, which would also be the second in Pepe Guardiola’s career.
The first step for the much-loved triplet was already taken by overcoming an advantage of up to 8 points against Arsenal in the English championship and with 6 games to go to seize the lead, the second objective is in mind this Saturday when they face their city rival Manchester United for the FA Cup.
Those led by Erik Ten Hag finished in third place in the Premier League, won the Carabao Cup and now they will seek to close the season with a flourish with another cup. In front they have a powerful City that has not won the competition since 2019.
From the hand of Pep Guardiola, City will look for something historic and it is the treble. First they must beat United this Saturday and Inter in 8 days in the Champions League final. The Spanish strategist had already achieved this feat in the 2008/2009 season.
The Manchester United manager commented at a press conference that: “We have to win a trophy and it’s not for ruining the treble for them. We have to win the title because we have a great opportunity,” Ten Hag released about City’s chance of getting close to the treble if they win the FA Cup.
The triplet is not so easy
Throughout history only 7 clubs have been able to win a treble (League Cup, League and Champions League). So this feat is not so easy to accomplish.
The first club to achieve a treble was Celtic of Scotland in 1967, when they won their first and so far only Champions League in their history. Then Johan Cruyff’s Ajax replicated 5 years later, that that year in addition to the treble they also won the Dutch Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
16 years later another Dutch team once again achieved a treble, this time it was PSV Eindhoven in 1988. In 1999 Manchester United would do the same and 10 years later Guardiola’s Barça would achieve not only the treble, but the sextet. Also adding the European Super Cup, Spanish Super Cup and Club World Cup, winning each and every one of the tournaments where he participated.
Barely a season later, Mourinho’s Inter achieved the unexpected, Bayern Munich in 2013 did the same, and in 2015 Barcelona repeated the triplet with Luis Enrique. The most recent to achieve this was Bayern Munich itself in 2020.
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