Following Manchester City's victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final on Saturday night, the Premier League, FA Cup, and Europe's top trophy were added to their historic treble victory.
But for City's manager, one of his sides hasn't even controlled a season in this fashion before.
Barcelona won the LaLiga championship, Copa del Rey, and the Champions League in his first season in charge of the first team, 2008–09, where they overcame Manchester United in the championship match.
When they won LaLiga and defeated United once more in the Champions League final two seasons later, in 2010–11, they were just inches away from a repeat.
The only thing stopping a repetition was Cristiano Ronaldo's goal for Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final.
The Barcelona during Guardiola's era are regarded as one of the most visually appealing football teams of all time.
Fans gasped at the brilliance of Lionel Messi, the dexterity of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, and, in 2009 at least, the attacking contributions of Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o as their 'tiki-taka' philosophy was admired by all save their rivals.
How do City's champions stack up to their manager's best Barcelona squads from a little over ten years ago?
WHO THEY SURFACE
In the summer of 2008, president Joan Laporta promoted club legend Guardiola to the top position after he had only coached Barcelona's B squad for one season.
While highlights in the Champions League included a 4-0 demolition of Bayern Munich in the quarterfinal, first leg, they also added the Copa del Rey by defeating Athletic Bilbao 4-1.
Guardiola was really ejected from the stadium during the match by English referee Howard Webb for a loud protest when Messi was denied a penalty early on and was also given a booking for diving.
Due to Eric Abidal's early dismissal at Stamford Bridge, they came within seconds of losing to Chelsea in the semi-final.
That is, until Iniesta scored the game-winning away goal late in extra time, setting off a joyous Guardiola rush down the sideline.
With goals from Eto'o and Messi, they defeated Sir Alex Ferguson's powerful Man United team in the Rome championship.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0