sport news Would Man City Treble be better than Man United's in 1999? trends now

'Football… bloody hell'.

It was with these immortal words that Alex Ferguson - soon to be Sir Alex Ferguson - reacted to Manchester United's extraordinary Treble triumph in 1999.

He'd just witnessed his team score twice in stoppage time to stun Bayern Munich and add the Champions League to the Premier League and the FA Cup, completing a triple crown no English club had ever achieved before.

24 years on and United fans would be forgiven for repeating the words 'bloody hell' quite often of late as their bitter rivals Manchester City close in on emulating Fergie's feat.

Pep Guardiola's all-conquering side already have the Premier League and FA Cup in the bag and will party like it's 1999 if they beat Inter Milan in Saturday's Champions League final.

United had their opportunity to wreck City's dreams in Saturday's FA Cup final but were comprehensively second-best despite the narrow 2-1 scoreline.

If City do it, there will be plenty of debate over which of the two teams was better.

Comparing different football eras is fraught with difficulty but we can certainly agree that City's Treble, if they do it, will be achieved in a very different way to United's.

PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE RACE

City simply stormed their way to the first leg of their possible Treble with 12 consecutive league wins to overhaul long-time leaders Arsenal.

Once Guardiola's side fully hit their stride after the turn of the year, you always suspected Arsenal would crumble under the pressure.

City did not lose between February 5 and May 28, when on the final day they went down 1-0 to Brentford in a dead rubber.

In the end, they won the league by five points from the Gunners and that was with a bit of slacking off in the final week with the title settled.

They amassed 89 points, which was less than some of their recent title campaigns, and scored 94 goals. Despite having to play catch-up to Arsenal, it was never really in any doubt they would win a fifth title in six seasons.

In 1999, United basically produced a high wire act in the final weeks of the season in all competitions.

The league race was nip and tuck between themselves and reigning champions Arsenal, managed by Arsene Wenger, and you could barely slip a piece of paper between them.

It went to a dramatic final day, with United coming from behind to beat Tottenham 2-1 at Old Trafford and ensure they finished a point clear of the Gunners.

Ferguson's team went undefeated in the Premier League after they lost 3-2 at home to Middlesbrough on December 19. That run featured 14 wins and six draws.

But most of those draws came in the final few weeks as they staggered to the finish line - four of their last eight matches saw only a point taken.

Arsenal, meanwhile, won six of their final seven games but a 1-0 defeat at Leeds in the final week of the season ultimately proved decisive.

In an indication of how the modern City side have raised standards - United won the title in 1999 with 10 points fewer (79) and 14 fewer goals (80).

At the time, they had a similar dominance to City's nowadays - 1999 was United's fifth league title in seven seasons and they would go on to claim the next two.

FA CUP RUN

United's FA Cup run in 1999 was arguably more dramatic. It certainly wasn't straightforward given they had to overcome rivals Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal to win it.

In a foretaste of things to come, they staged a last-gasp turnaround to beat Liverpool 2-1 in the fourth round, with Dwight Yorke equalising in the 88th-minute and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer winning it in stoppage time.

Having overcome Fulham, then a third-tier team, in round five, they needed a replay to get past Chelsea.

That put them on a collision course with Arsenal in the semi-final. The first game at Villa Park was a tense goalless draw but the replay had absolutely everything.

David Beckham's opener was cancelled out by Dennis Bergkamp, Nicolas Anelka saw what would have been Arsenal's winner disallowed for offside, then Roy Keane was sent off.

In the dying minutes, Peter Schmeichel saved a Bergkamp penalty before Ryan Giggs scored probably the greatest-ever FA Cup goal with a mazy dribble from inside his own half.

After all that, United's 2-0 win over Newcastle in the Wembley final was serene.

City's route to glory in this season's FA Cup was far less treacherous.

Fair enough, they had to overcome Chelsea and Arsenal in the early rounds but Chelsea have endured a terrible season and Arsenal rested key players.

After that, they trounced three Championship opponents in Bristol City, Burnley and Sheffield United. Entering the final, they'd scored 17 goals in five games and conceded none.

Though Erik ten Hag's United did their best to halt City's progress, they were clearly inferior in the final and two Ilkay Gundogan goals did the damage.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RUN

It's necessary to remember the context of the times when comparing the respective European adventures.

United had flown the flag for English football in the Champions League throughout the 90s, slowly chipping away at the established powers but suffering their fair share of heartbreak.

In 1998-99, just two English sides were permitted into the Champions League and having finished second to Arsenal the previous season, United actually had to pre-qualify for the competition.

The smaller size of the tournament in those days meant jeopardy right from the outset, especially when they were drawn against Barcelona, Bayern and Brondby in the group stage.

United drew all four games against Barcelona and Bayern - including a couple of 3-3 epics against the Spanish side - while boosting their goal difference by whipping Danes Brondby 6-2 and 5-0.

Bayern won the group, with United advancing to the quarter-finals as one of two runners-up with the best record.

Moments after a 1-1 home draw with Bayern sealed their passage, Gary Neville was on ITV asking whether Juventus had made it through.

It spoke of United's obsession with the feared Italian giants, who'd served as a yardstick for their own progress in Europe.

In the 1996-97 season, Juventus beat United 1-0 both home and away in the group stage but the narrow scoreline disguised the huge gulf in class to Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero et al.

In 1997-98, United felt they'd taken a giant leap after beating Juventus 3-2 at Old Trafford in the group but it was the Turin club who went all the way to the final, losing to Real Madrid, as the Reds crashed out to Monaco in the quarters.

In the Treble year, after overcoming another Italian powerhouse in Inter Milan first, United had to overcome their nemesis in the semi-finals.

A late Giggs equaliser salvaged a 1-1 first leg draw at Old Trafford but all hope seemed lost when Filippo Inzaghi scored twice inside the first 11 minutes in the return game.

But inspired by captain Roy Keane, whose later booking would rule him out the final, United surged back with Keane, Yorke and Andy Cole scoring in a 3-2 win.

If that fightback was dramatic, it was nothing on the astonishing scenes against Bayern in the Nou Camp final as Teddy Sheringham and Solskjaer flipped a game United had been second best in on its head in the dying seconds.

This was the first triumph of an English club in Europe's leading competition since Liverpool in 1984, a reminder that teams in other countries were far stronger at that time.

It's very different now, with English clubs regularly making the business end of the Champions League. We have seen two all-Premier League finals in the past five seasons.

City's run to this year's final has been swashbuckling and they have looked a class above everyone else, slaying a few demons from their 12-year journey to win this trophy along the way.

Having coasted through their group, they thumped RB Leipzig 7-0 in the second leg of their last-16 tie, with Erling Haaland netting five times.

The quarter-finals threw

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