FROM THE AVIVA STADIUM – What is the greatest season in European footballing history?
Well, Manchester United’s 1999/00 treble triumph is in with a shout, as are Manchester City’s treble winners of 2022/23.
Barcelona’s 2010/11 campaign wasn’t half bad either, with Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez (before he was just an extraordinarily angry man on the touchline) and Andres Iniesta running the show, and putting a pretty damn good Manchester United side to the sword at Wembley Stadium in an all-time great UEFA Champions League final.
If we’re to go way back in time, AC Milan’s 1993/94 season in which they won the Serie A (when it was by far the best league in the world) and the UEFA Champions League by thumping Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona 4-0 in the final also deserves a tip of the cap. As does Real Madrid’s 1957/58 side who won the double on pitches closer to slurry fields than what we see modern day players have the pleasure of kicking a ball about on.
And if we’re to take into account those wonderful ‘how the hell did they do that?’ seasons, Leicester City’s billlion-to-one (basically) Premier League triumph back in 2015/16 is right up there too.
But there’s one thing every single one teams – no matter how astounding and full of legendary superstars of the game they were – weren’t able to achieve: an unbeaten season across every single competition. It’s one thing which has perhaps always held us back from definitively tagging a specific campaign as the ‘greatest European football season of all time’.
In 2023/24, Bayer Leverkusen came as close to any side has to doing it.
Their Europa League final defeat to Atalanta ultimately put an end to their quest to complete an unheard of unbeaten treble winning campaign, with a 52nd game of the season weighing a little too heavy on Leverkusen’s tired legs.
Xabi Alonso’s side did look absolutely knackered at the Aviva Stadium. Their ability to play through the press alluded them, as did their ability to squeeze the life out of teams by sheer volume of chance creation – they mustered up just three shots on goal in the first 45 minutes in Dublin as opposed to their usual 30.
However, instead of sitting here and badgering Leverkusen for falling at the second-to-last hurdle in their attempt to a full season unbeaten in all competitions, we’re instead going to praise them for coming this close to it.
Because, in truth, they weren’t even supposed to get this far.
In fact, they weren’t supposed to win anything at all in 2023/24.
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