FC Barcelona's 10 Best Moments in 2008-09

After finishing third the year before in La Liga and failing to reach the Champions League final, Barcelona and their new coach Josep Guardiola started off the season in disappointing fashion as they had a shocking loss to Numancia and drew with Racing Santander in their first two La Liga games.

However, in their third game, they had to play against Sporting Gijon, who were just recently promoted. But Barcelona got their act together and won the game 6-1, regaining their composure and getting a fresh start to the new La Liga campaign.

In the Champions League round of 16, Barcelona was paired up with defending French Champions Lyon. In the first leg at Lyon's Stade Gerland, the result ended in a one all draw for both teams and they were heading into the Camp Nou for the second leg.

But in the second leg, Barcelona came out firing, as they scored four goals in the first 43 minutes of the game, which all but secured a trip onto the quarterfinals against Bayern Munich as they went onto win the game 5-2.

Even though they didn't play on May 16, Barcelona still won La Liga and the Spanish double after arch rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal 3-2.

Because of their win in the Copa del Rey final several days earlier, Barcelona now had accomplished their first Spanish double in 11 years and now only needed to win the Champions League Final to be the first Spanish team to win the treble.

After beating up Lyon in the round of 16, Barcelona were paired up with Bayern Munich, who just annihilated Sporting Libson 12-1 on aggregate in the previous round in the round of 16, in the quarterfinals.

But as soon as the two teams kicked off, Barcelona came out firing as they scored four goals in the first 43 minutes, and went on to win the game by the same score.

This win all but secured Barcelona in a spot in the Champions League semifinals, which was another step towards the treble.

After a disappointing season in 2007-2008, Barcelona let go of manager Frank Rijkaard and replaced him with former Barcelona club captain Josep Guardiola, who had only one year of coaching experience.

Immediately after coming in, he let Ronaldinho and Deco leave Barcelona, and planned to use his 4-3-3 system to lead the team to success.

This plan was a huge success as Barcelona went on to win the Treble and Josep Guardiola had a dream season as his first season as Barcelona manager.

On December 13, Barcelona and Real Madrid met at the Camp Nou in Juande Ramos debut as Real's coach.

Throughout the first 70 minutes of the game, Real played equal with Barcelona, who was holding a 12 point lead over their rivals already in La Liga.

But in the 70th minute, Samuel Eto'o was given a chance on a penalty to give Barcelona a lead, but the shot was stopped by Iker Casillas, and the game remained scoreless.

But Eto'o never gave up and in the 83rd minute, he got a header from Carles Puyol, and hit it into the back of the net, giving Barcelona a 1-0 lead. Lionel Messi also scored for Barcelona in the beginning of stoppage time, and Barcelona went on to beat their rivals 2-0.

After getting past Mallocra 3-1 on aggreagate in the semifinals, Barcelona faced off against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final.

Bilbao, who was trying for their first trophy in 25 years, took an early lead on a Gaizka Toquero Pinedo goal, but Barcelona rebounded as Gneri Toure Yaya, Lionel Messi, Bojan Krkic and Xavi all found the back of the net, giving Barcelona the Copa del Rey trophy.

This was Josep Guardiola's first trophy as Barcelona manager, and it was the first of three legs of the treble.

On May 2, Barcelona went to the Bernabéu in Madrid to face off with Real Madrid in what was probably the most important game in La Liga all season.

And Real showed that they came to play as Gonzalo Higuaín scored in the 14th minute to give them a 1-0 lead. But Barcelona rebounded as Thierry Henry, Carles Puyol and Lionel Messi scored within the rest of the half, giving Barcelona a 3-1 lead at the half.

But in the 56th minute, Sergio Ramos scored to make it a one goal game, but Barcelona rebounded again as Henry, Messi and Gerard Pique all scored, giving Barcelona a 6-2 win and all but secured La Liga for them.

In the Champions League final, Barcelona and Manchester United met in Rome on May 27 to decide who would become the next Champion of Europe. Early on, Samuel Eto'o scored off Edwin Van de Sar, giving Barcelona a 1-0 lead and gave Barcelona control of the game.

This doomed United for the rest of the half as they weren't able to get anything going offensively. But after Xavi hit a post, it seemed that United would come back.

But Lionel Messi had no plans of that, as he headed in a cross from Xavi in the 70th minute, which all but secured the Champions League final for Barcelona, as they won the game 2-0 and became the first Spanish team to win the treble.

In the Champions League semifinal, Barcelona and Chelsea met with the winner going to the Champions League final. The first leg was at the Camp Nou and the game ended without any score, mainly because of a great game from Chelsea keeper Petr Cech.

So the two teams met a week later in Stamford Bridge in London, and Chelsea took an early lead in the ninth minute as Michael Essien nailed a shot off the crossbar and past Víctor Valdés, giving Chelsea a 1-0 lead.

Afterwards, Chelsea dominated the game, and also got a man advantage as Éric Abidal got red carded for a tackle on Nicolas Anelka in the 66th minute.

But as stoppage time neared, Barcelona finally got an attack together, and in the third minute of stoppage time, Lionel Messi crossed the ball to Andrés Iniesta, who then vollied the ball past Cech, tying the game and giving Barcelona the lead in the series based on away goals, as Iniesta's volley got Barcelona to the Champions League final.