Liverpool are in a dominant position at the top of the Premier League and finished first in the inaugural UEFA Champions League league phase.
Their dominant Carabao Cup semifinal comeback against Tottenham means Arne Slot is a victory over Newcastle at Wembley in March away from his first Anfield trophy.
With their Premier League and Champions League campaigns progressing so strongly, there were faint murmurings around Liverpool’s treble and quadruple prospects, ahead of their weekend FA Cup fourth-round trip to Plymouth Argyle.
However, the bottom team in the EFL Championship did not read the script, as they subjected Slot’s heavily rotated side to a shock 1-0 defeat.
It goes to show just how precarious bids for trophies on multiple fronts can be, with little to no margin for error.
But what exactly is the quadruple and has any team ever done it?
MORE: All the latest Champions League news | How does the 2024/25 Champions League work? | Full UCL match schedule
What is the quadruple in football?
Here it’s important to set out the ground rules. This is one for the purists and the pedants and some ungodly combination of the two.
Teams can win three or four trophies in a season and the haul would not be considered a treble or a quadruple. This is because domestic, continental and global “super cups” — such as the Community Shield, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup — are typically not counted as major honours.
How the expanded FIFA Club World Cup changes that equation remains to be seen, although the fact it is a quadrennial event as opposed to an annual competition, means it probably stands apart.
What we’re looking for is a clean sweep of the major domestic and continental trophies a team takes part in. In England, the four elements of the quadruple are the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup and the League Cup (currently the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons).
Straight away, we’re ruling out vast chunks of Europe, as very few nations have two senior domestic cup competitions. France held the Coupe de la Ligue alongside the Coupe de France from 1994/95 to 2019/20, when it was abolished to reduce fixture congestion.
Portugal still stages the Taca da Liga alongside the Taca de Portugal, while Scotland matches up to England with its own FA Cup and League Cup.
Has any team ever won the quadruple?
Liverpool lifted the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup in a superb 2021/22, but were within two games of winning the lot. Manchester City needed a late comeback to win 3-2 from 2-0 down on the final day of the Premier League season against Aston Villa to pip Jurgen Klopp’s men to the title. The following week they were edged out 1-0 by Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
City replicated their neighbours Manchester United’s Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League triumph of 1998/99 in 2022/23 but the League Cup fell by the wayside for both teams. City were beaten by a relegation-bound Southampton in January 2022, while Sir Alex Ferguson’s United suffered a quarterfinal exit at the hands of Spurs.
In 2018/19, Pep Guardiola’s City completed an unprecedented Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup domestic treble but a quarterfinal defeat to Spurs was also the factor to nix the clean sweep, in the Champions League in this instance.
During France’s Coupe de France era, no Ligue 1 team won the Champions League, meaning no quadruples. Paris Saint-Germain won the domestic treble in 2014/15, 2015/16, 2017/18 and 2019/20. The capital club also lifted the Trophee des Champions — France’s domestic super cup — in each of those seasons.
Porto came closest to a quadruple in Portugal when they won the Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and UEFA Europa League in 2010/11. They also took home the Supertaca. In 1987/88, they embellished a domestic double with the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
It means Scottish giants Celtic remain the only men’s team under the criteria laid out with a genuine quadruple to their name. In 1966/67, Jock Stein’s all-conquering heroes won the Scottish First Division, FA Cup and League Cup and claimed their crowning glory by coming from behind to defeat Helenio Herrera’s great Inter Milan side in the European Cup final.
In women’s football, Arsenal were European and English champions in 2006/07, when they also lifted the FA Cup and League Cup
MORE: This is how it feels to be City: From Gillingham to Grealish in millions and memories for Manchester’s new treble kings
Which teams have won the treble?
Alongside City, United and Celtic, five other European men’s clubs have won the Champions League, domestic league and primary domestic cup treble. Here’s the list in full:
- Celtic (1966/67)
- Ajax (1971/72)
- PSV (1987/88)
- Manchester United (1998/99)
- Barcelona (2008/09 & 2014/15)
- Inter Milan (2009/10)
- Bayern Munich (2012/13 & 2019/20)
- Manchester City (2022/23)
Barcelona Femini claimed European football’s most recent treble in 2023/24, when they swept the board in Liga F, the Copa de la Reina and the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
