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Rob Dawson, Correspondent
The treble is so uncommon in English soccer that when Sir Alex Ferguson addressed his gamers at Camp Nou forward of the 1999 Champions League ultimate, he likened it to flying to the moon.
Manchester United had already lifted the Premier League trophy and the FA Cup throughout the earlier 10 days, standing on the verge of changing into the primary English workforce to win all three competitions in the identical season. However regardless of his rousing speech earlier than kickoff, Ferguson realised in a short time that even for an impressive workforce, the ultimate sport of a gruelling season spent combating on three fronts was 90 minutes too far. Bayern Munich have been higher, besides throughout three minutes of stoppage time when Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the objectives that wrote United into the historical past books.
It has been practically 1 / 4 of a century, however Pep Guardiola and Manchester Metropolis are two video games away from becoming a member of them. The Premier League is already theirs, whereas all that stands between them and the treble is an FA Cup ultimate in opposition to United on June 3 and a Champions League ultimate in opposition to Inter Milan per week afterward June 10.
Like Ferguson 24 years in the past, it is as much as Guardiola to plot his means via the remaining three weeks of the season and ensure Metropolis do not miss the prospect to succeed in the moon.
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Metropolis’s run-in — thus far — has been much more serene than the one United skilled in 1999. Guardiola’s workforce rattled off 12 straight league wins to overtake Arsenal on the high of the desk, received their FA Cup semifinal in opposition to Sheffield United 3-0 and thrashed Actual Madrid 4-0 of their Champions League semifinal second leg.
United, in distinction, drew 4 of their final eight league video games and needed to beat Tottenham Hotspur at Previous Trafford on the ultimate day of the season to win the Premier League. Their FA Cup semifinal in opposition to Arsenal went to a replay, wherein Roy Keane was despatched off and Peter Schmeichel saved a Dennis Bergkamp penalty, and within the Champions League semifinal second leg in opposition to Juventus, United have been 2-0 down in 10 minutes. Towards Bayern within the ultimate, they have been behind for 85 minutes earlier than Sheringham’s equaliser.
Since Metropolis final misplaced a sport, to Tottenham on Feb. 5, they have been behind for a complete of 41 minutes — 10 minutes in opposition to Liverpool in April, and just a little over half-hour in opposition to Actual Madrid within the Bernabeu in Might. If United’s treble is remembered for being splendidly chaotic, Metropolis’s cost has, for probably the most half, been calm and managed.
The character of United’s run-in meant that from Previous Trafford, to Wembley and on to Barcelona, the gamers have been driving a wave of momentum. Coaching was restricted as a lot as attainable to protect power, and probably the most working they did was when Schmeichel chased Dwight Yorke in anger as a result of the striker had scored a Panenka penalty whereas the squad practiced spot kicks earlier than the Champions League ultimate. (The goalkeeper solely calmed down when Yorke swore that he was taking the train significantly and he deliberate to do the identical in opposition to Bayern.)
Guardiola’s dilemma between now and the FA Cup ultimate is keep the rhythm of his key gamers, like Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, with out placing too many extra minutes of their legs or risking harm. Metropolis’s remaining league video games in opposition to Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford — with nothing at stake — current an issue for Guardiola as a result of he believes two poor performances might influence the sport in opposition to United.
“I do not know if they’ve that feeling to play in opposition to Brighton and Brentford at this level, in these phrases, as a result of the goal for the Premier League is finished, however we can not drop a lot, in any other case it makes it harder,” he informed a information convention on Tuesday. “The demanding FA Cup ultimate in opposition to Man United will likely be actually, actually troublesome, and I’ve began to look at just a little bit some minutes of Inter Milan and I am actually impressed, actually impressed at what they do.”
It is a accident that Metropolis want to match a feat first achieved by United, their metropolis neighbours, and it is United, together with Inter, who stand of their means.
When Liverpool have been aiming to develop into the primary English workforce to do the treble in 1977, they have been crushed by United within the FA Cup ultimate in between lifting the First Division title and the European Cup. Liverpool have been English soccer’s dominant drive for a lot of the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, profitable 11 league titles and 4 European Cups in twenty years between 1970 and 1990, however 1977 was as shut as they bought to the treble. And regardless of all of United’s dominance beneath Ferguson — 13 league titles, 5 FA Cups and 4 Champions League finals — all of it got here collectively simply as soon as in 1999.
Guardiola and Metropolis are subsequent to face on the point of historical past. As United can inform them, the prospect does not come round fairly often.