Manchester United's 1999 Treble: How Ferguson's Side Won It All

Manchester United won the treble in 1999 by taking the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League in the space of eleven days in May: a 2-1 win over Tottenham on 16 May, a 2-0 win over Newcastle at Wembley on 22 May and a 2-1 win over Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou on 26 May. No English club had done it before. The Premier League's season review calls them the first English club to win that treble, and it took 24 years for another, Manchester City in 2023, to match it.

This page sets out how they did it: the numbers, the route to each trophy, the team and the matches that came closest to ending it.

The season at a glance

Manager	Alex Ferguson
Premier League	Champions, 79 points, one ahead of Arsenal
League record	P38 W22 D13 L3, 80 scored, 37 conceded
FA Cup	Won, 2-0 v Newcastle United at Wembley
Champions League	Won, 2-1 v Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou
Top scorer	Dwight Yorke, 18 league goals, 29 in all competitions
Unbeaten run	33 games in all competitions, 26 December 1998 to 26 May 1999
Last defeat	2-3 at home to Middlesbrough, 19 December 1998

Yorke was the Premier League's Player of the Season and Ferguson its Manager of the Season. In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours list Ferguson was knighted for his services to the game, according to his Wikipedia biography.

Trophy one: the Premier League

The final table

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Manchester United	38	22	13	3	80	37	79
Arsenal	38	22	12	4	59	17	78
Chelsea	38	20	15	3	57	30	75
Leeds United	38	18	13	7	62	34	67

The two sides at the top were built differently. United scored 80, the most in the division, and Yorke and Andy Cole shared 35 of them. Arsenal conceded only 17 and kept 23 clean sheets, more than anyone. Both won 22 league games; United's one extra draw and one fewer defeat was the whole difference. How points and tie-breakers work is covered in how league tables and points work.

The title went to the last afternoon. In the penultimate round United drew 0-0 with Blackburn while Arsenal lost 1-0 to Leeds, so United went into the final day a point ahead.

Manchester United 2-1 Tottenham, 16 May 1999. Les Ferdinand put Spurs ahead in the 24th minute. David Beckham equalised in the 42nd, and Cole scored the winner two minutes into the second half, according to Sports Mole's match record. Arsenal beat Aston Villa 1-0 the same day, which was not enough.

Earlier in the season United had beaten Nottingham Forest 8-1 away in February, a game in which Ole Gunnar Solskjær came off the bench and scored four goals in 14 minutes.

Trophy two: the FA Cup

United needed two late goals to get past Liverpool in the fourth round, and two semi-finals against Arsenal to reach Wembley.

Round	Date	Result	United scorers
Third round	3 Jan 1999	Man Utd 3-1 Middlesbrough	Cole, Irwin (pen), Giggs
Fourth round	24 Jan 1999	Man Utd 2-1 Liverpool	Yorke 88', Solskjær 90'
Fifth round	14 Feb 1999	Man Utd 1-0 Fulham	Cole
Sixth round	7 Mar 1999	Man Utd 0-0 Chelsea
Sixth round replay	10 Mar 1999	Chelsea 0-2 Man Utd	Yorke 2
Semi-final	11 Apr 1999	Man Utd 0-0 Arsenal (aet), Villa Park
Semi-final replay	14 Apr 1999	Man Utd 2-1 Arsenal (aet), Villa Park	Beckham, Giggs
Final	22 May 1999	Man Utd 2-0 Newcastle, Wembley	Sheringham, Scholes

Results from the 1998-99 Manchester United season record.

The semi-final replay. Beckham scored in the 17th minute and Dennis Bergkamp equalised. Roy Keane was then sent off with about 15 minutes of normal time left, and late on Phil Neville brought down Ray Parlour for a penalty. Peter Schmeichel saved Bergkamp's kick and the game went to extra time. With about ten minutes of it left, Ryan Giggs, who had come on after the hour, picked up a stray pass from Patrick Vieira near halfway, ran past Lee Dixon and Martin Keown and shot high past David Seaman. The FA and Sporting Life both tell it this way. How extra time and shootouts work is in extra time and penalty shootouts explained.

The final. Keane hurt his ankle in the ninth minute and was replaced by Teddy Sheringham, who scored two minutes later, through the legs of Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper. It was his 250th club goal, Sky Sports notes, and he set up Paul Scholes for the second early in the second half and was named man of the match. Jaap Stam, nursing an Achilles injury, came on for the last 12 minutes to test his fitness for Barcelona. The win made United the first English club to do the league and FA Cup Double three times.

Trophy three: the Champions League

United started in the second qualifying round, against ŁKS Łódź, and were drawn in the group with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Brøndby. They drew both games with Barcelona 3-3 and both with Bayern, beat Brøndby 6-2 and 5-0, and went through second with 10 points behind Bayern.

Round	Result	Aggregate
Quarter-final	Man Utd 2-0 Inter (Yorke 2); Inter 1-1 Man Utd (Scholes 88')	3-1
Semi-final	Man Utd 1-1 Juventus (Giggs 90+2'); Juventus 2-3 Man Utd	4-3
Final	Man Utd 2-1 Bayern Munich, Camp Nou

Juventus 2-3 Manchester United, 21 April 1999. After a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, Filippo Inzaghi scored twice in the first 11 minutes in Turin to put Juventus 3-1 up on aggregate. Keane headed in a Beckham corner in the 24th minute. Nine minutes later he was booked for a late challenge on Zinedine Zidane, which ruled him out of the final. A minute after that Yorke headed in Cole's cross to put United ahead on away goals, and Cole settled it in the 84th minute. Scholes was booked in the 76th minute, so he missed the final too, according to TNT Sports' retro report.

The final: Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, 26 May 1999

Without Keane and Scholes, Ferguson moved Beckham into central midfield beside Nicky Butt, put Giggs on the right and Jesper Blomqvist on the left, and Schmeichel captained the side in his last game for the club. Bayern were without Bixente Lizarazu and Giovane Elber.

Mario Basler put Bayern ahead in the sixth minute with a low free-kick around the wall. Ferguson sent on Sheringham for Blomqvist in the 67th minute and Solskjær for Cole in the 81st. Bayern had the chances to finish it: substitute Mehmet Scholl hit the post and Carsten Jancker hit the bar with an overhead kick.

Then came stoppage time. From a Beckham corner, Thorsten Fink's attempted clearance fell to Giggs, whose shot Sheringham turned in. Two minutes later another Beckham corner was flicked on by Sheringham, and Solskjær scored the winner. Bundesliga.com's account puts the goals in the 91st and 93rd minutes, and the match record of the final lists them as 90+1 and 90+3; how added time is calculated is in stoppage time explained.

FIFA's retrospective records the two lines that stuck. UEFA president Lennart Johansson was on his way down through the stadium to present the trophy when the goals went in, and said afterwards: "The winners are crying and the losers are dancing." Ferguson's verdict was shorter: "Football, bloody hell." He added: "They never gave in, and that's what won it."

From Villa Park to Barcelona

Date	Match	Result
14 Apr 1999	FA Cup semi-final replay v Arsenal	Won 2-1 aet, Giggs winner
21 Apr 1999	Champions League semi-final v Juventus (a)	Won 3-2, 4-3 on aggregate
16 May 1999	Premier League v Tottenham (h)	Won 2-1, trophy one
22 May 1999	FA Cup final v Newcastle, Wembley	Won 2-0, trophy two
26 May 1999	Champions League final v Bayern, Camp Nou	Won 2-1, trophy three

The squad in numbers

No outfield player appeared in every league game, and Solskjær scored 12 league goals while starting only nine. Figures from the 1998-99 season record; substitute appearances in brackets.

Player	Position	League apps	League goals	All comps goals
Peter Schmeichel	Goalkeeper	34	0	0
Gary Neville	Right-back	34	1	1
Jaap Stam	Centre-back	30	1	1
Ronny Johnsen	Centre-back	19 (3)	3	3
Denis Irwin	Left-back	26 (3)	2	3
David Beckham	Right midfield	33 (1)	6	9
Roy Keane	Central midfield	33 (2)	2	5
Paul Scholes	Central midfield	24 (7)	6	11
Nicky Butt	Central midfield	22 (9)	2	2
Ryan Giggs	Left midfield	20 (4)	3	10
Dwight Yorke	Striker	32	18	29
Andy Cole	Striker	26 (6)	17	24
Ole Gunnar Solskjær	Striker	9 (10)	12	18
Teddy Sheringham	Striker	7 (10)	2	5

Stam and Yorke were among that summer's signings, Stam from PSV Eindhoven and Yorke from Aston Villa. Yorke and Cole scored 35 of the 80 league goals, but the depth behind them decided the cups: Sheringham and Solskjær, the third and fourth strikers, scored the goals that won the final. The difference between the types of forward in that group is set out in types of striker explained, and the shape they played in is drawn out in the 4-4-2 formation explained.

The unbeaten run

United lost five times all season: the Charity Shield to Arsenal, the League Cup fifth round to Tottenham and three league games. The last was a 3-2 home defeat by Middlesbrough on 19 December 1998. From the next game, at home to Nottingham Forest on 26 December, they went 33 matches in all competitions without losing, through to the final whistle in Barcelona.

How it compares

For 24 years the 1999 side was the only English treble winner. Manchester City matched it in 2022-23, beating Inter 1-0 in the Champions League final in Istanbul; Sky Sports called City "just the second English side to achieve the treble after Manchester United in 1999".

Arsenal, a point behind United in 1999, set a different kind of record five seasons later: their Invincibles went through 2003-04 unbeaten in the league but won no cups. Their story is in Arsenal's Invincibles. How the Champions League works today is covered in the Champions League format explained.