When Barcelona completed a historic second treble - and denied Juventus a first

With six years having passed since the day, let us look back at when FC Barcelona created history as Europe's first two-time treble winners.

FC Barcelona celebrate winning the 2015 Champions League final. (Image: Twitter)
By Shayne Dias | Jun 6, 2021 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Doing the treble in football – a feat that consists of winning one’s domestic league, cup tournament and a continental trophy – is hard enough just once. Just ask fans of Manchester United, Inter Milan, Celtic, Ajax, and PSV Eindhoven. These sides have done the treble just once in their history. But amazingly, there are sides in Europe who have done it twice – FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich. It was the Catalan giants, however, who accomplished the treble for the second time on this day in 2015. They did so by beating Juventus in the final of the Champions League in Berlin.

With six years having passed since the day, let us look back at when Barcelona created history as Europe’s first two-time treble winners.

The background

The 2015 Champions League final was similar to the 2010 one, in the sense that both teams playing in the match had the chance to complete the treble.

Barcelona were La Liga and Copa del Rey champions coming into the match. Similarly, Juventus had wrapped up the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles.

Juventus were aiming for a maiden continental treble coming into the match. Barcelona, on the other hand, had already achieved the feat once in 2008-09.

Both teams were also playing in their eighth European Cup final. Of their previous seven finals, Juventus had won two and lost five. Barcelona had won four and lost three.

Incidentally, this was the first time these two sides were clashing in a final. They had played each other six times prior to this in UEFA competitions but never in a final.

Juventus finished second in their group before eliminating Borussia Dortmund, Monaco and Real Madrid in the knockout stages.

Barcelona topped their group but had a tougher knockout draw – they had to go past Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich to make the final.

FC Barcelona – history makers

Barcelona started the match as favourites and it was little surprise when they went ahead after four minutes. The man who scored the first goal was midfielder Ivan Rakitic. This proved to be the only goal of the half.

Juventus were not about to go down without a fight, however. They found an equaliser through Alvaro Morata and suddenly it was game on.

Yet Barcelona were not to be pinned back for too long. This was the era of MSN – the fearsome attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. If anyone could find a goal, it was these three.

Indeed, it was Suarez who found a goal. Messi unleashed a fierce left-footed shot that Gianluigi Buffon could only parry and Suarez pounced on the rebound.

Juventus piled forward in search of another equaliser and nearly got it too. Roberto Pereyra could have scored but slipped. A Claudio Marchisio effort was well saved by Marc Andre ter Stegen.

It took Barceloa until the final kick of the game to seal the win. Pedro, coming off the bench, rounded off a counter-attack by squaring it to Neymar. The Brazilian finished and the whistle blew, sparking celebrations at the Barca bench.





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