ionigeria.com Nigerian Newspaper
MANCHESTER CITY have made history by claiming an incredible Treble with victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
For 24 years, fierce rivals Manchester United were the only team to have won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in a single season.
But now bragging rights will have to be shared by both the red and blue half of Manchester.
Pep Guardiola’s side secured the Treble by overcoming Inter 1-0 in a closely-fought contest.
And they will look back on the moment they emphatically earned revenge on Real Madrid in the semi-finals as the highlight of the season.
After a dramatic exit in last year’s semi-final where Los Blancos netted two last minute goals to force extra time before qualifying on aggregate, City drew Carlo Ancelotti’s men again in this year’s final four.
City secured their second trophy of the Treble last weekend as they stuck the knife into rivals United by winning the FA Cup final at Wembley.
Ilkay Gundogan netted both goals as the Red Devils tried in vain to end their hopes of emulating the achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in 1999.
The Treble had looked out of reach at the turn of the year when it looked like they would miss out on the Premier League title which they had won in four of the previous five seasons.
And things looked extremely bleak when they were 2-0 down at home to Tottenham and booed off for the first time during Pep Guardiola’s reign.
But they would come back to win that match 4-2 with the former Barcelona boss rallying the troops as he laid into both the players and the fans afterwards.
City would go on to crush Arsenal 3-1 at the Emirates and 4-1 at the Etihad as they overhauled the deficit to run out Premier League champions by a five-point margin.
This campaign marks the second Treble Pep Guardiola has won in his career.
The first came at Barcelona in 2009 – at the end of his very first season in management.
