MANCHESTER CITY
Manchester City have eight games to secure historic treble
Pep Guardiola’s side are favourites to lift the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, but can they do it?
On Tuesday Manchester City travel to Real Madrid in search of revenge for last season’s astonishing Champions League semi-final match between the two sides.
Last year City were comfortably leading the tie in the final minutes of the second leg in the Santiago Bernabeu, but two late goals from Rodrygo took the game to extra time and Madrid found the decisive winner.
Fast forward 12 months and Pep Guardiola’s side now look like an improved version of the team who fell just short in Europe last season. They look more defensively solid and have added the generational talents of Erling Haaland in attack.
With little over a month left of this campaign, City are the favourites to lift the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Yet despite their incredible recent form, Guardiola insists that talk of a famous treble is far from his mind.
“I’ll talk to you about it after we have won the FA Cup and Premier League,” Guardiola told the BBC after his side’s FA Cup semi-final win.
“Before the final of the Champions League we will start to talk of the Treble. Look how far away it is. We are far, far away. How many times in this amazing country have Trebles been done? How many years? How many teams?”
“It is one. Once. Our neighbors did it in how many centuries? Am I excited about the Treble? Not at all.”
What are Manchester City’s remaining fixtures this season?
As it stands the most pressing challenge for Manchester City is the two-legged semi-final against Real Madrid. They play at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday 9 May, with a return leg scheduled for Wednesday 17 May.
If they progress past the European champions, City will play with winner of Inter Milan and AC Milan in the final.
In the Premier League City have four games remaining and have a one-point lead over Arsenal. However City also have a game in hand. Their remaining league fixtures are against Everton, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford.
Once the Premier League season has been concluded, City will play rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final.
So can they do it? The only other treble in the history of English football came in the 1998/99 season, when Manchester United won the three biggest prizes.
The Red Devils won the league title on the final day with a 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. This was followed by a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at Wembley that secured that the FA Cup would be returning to Old Trafford.
Finally, and most dramatically, United won the Champions League with a stunning late comeback against Bayern Munich. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side were losing as the game entered three minutes of additional time but goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saw Manchester United crowned European champions for only the second time.
Manchester City will be out to replicate their neighbours this year as Guardiola’s side challenge on three fronts.