Four teams vying for Triple Crown honors: the 2024 - 2025 season promises major victories .

With Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan, the four Champions League quarter-finalists are still in with a chance of winning the treble.The 2024-25 season is set to be an exciting climax.

After a couple of scares in the domestic cup competitions for some last week, the 2024-25 season seems ready to end in the stands.

With almost every English club already failing on multiple fronts this season, the possibility of a Premier League team winning more than one trophy is the only possibility as Aston Villa broke the odds to win the Champions League and FA Cup. Meanwhile, four of Europe's biggest teams still have a real chance of winning the treble.

Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid are competing against each other on two domestic fronts, while they both still have a chance to win the Champions League.

Paris Saint-Germain won the Ligue 1 title at the weekend and will be huge favorites to win another domestic double when they take on Reims in the French Cup final in late May. Luis Enrique has made them look like real contenders for Europe's biggest prize as well.

Inter Milan are at the top of Serie A, chasing a draw after the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final against Milan and scoring a draw in the Champions League quarter-final. Having reached the final only a few years ago, they hope to do better this year.

All of which means this is the first time in seven seasons that four teams have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League while still having a chance to win the treble. The last time was the 2018-19 season when Manchester City, Barcelona, Porto and Ajax reached the last eight of Europe's premier competition, while they all remain in the hunt for their respective titles and are on course for domestic cup glory.

This is the only season in the last decade in which there have been four Champions League quarter-finalists vying for the treble. four teams had a mathematical chance of winning the treble in 2020-21, but both Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund had to reverse near-impossible points gaps to win the league, so two of the four had only a realistic chance of winning the treble.

In each of the last five seasons, no more than two teams have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and they have a realistic chance of winning the treble. In each of the last four seasons it has been Manchester City and at most another team in a season with just them.

At this stage of the season, it is a unique situation to have so many teams from Europe's top five leagues still chasing the Triple Crown. What's more, not only are they all still vying for the domestic double, but those four teams were separated in the quarterfinal draw.

This means that we have a chance for Real Madrid to play Paris Saint-Germain in one semi-final and Barcelona to play Inter Milan in the other semi-final, with all four teams having a chance to win their respective trebles (assuming that the title race is still going on and that each team is also still in their domestic cup competitions). The final could also be between the two teams vying for the treble.

According to the Opta supercomputer, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan are the favorites to win the quarterfinals, while Real Madrid is just cold against Arsenal (50.21 TP3T to 49.81 TP3T). So if the supercomputer is to be believed (and how dare you consider otherwise?) , there is a good chance that we will have all four computers in the semifinals.

The icing on the cake (for those of us who love a big showdown) is that we may be in the first ever Clásico Champions League final.

Barcelona are currently four points ahead of Real Madrid in La Liga and the rivals will meet next month on six points, which will have a huge say in the title race, which could come down to head-to-head records. Barcelona currently hold a big upper hand in that battle, winning 4-0 at the Bernabeu in October, but a slip-up in any other game could cost Real Madrid control. Barcelona dropped points at home to Real Betis last weekend, so it's clearly not entirely error-free, although Real Madrid lost at home to Valencia, so turning around a four-point deficit could be a challenge. Either way, it sets up for an exciting finish.

These two Spanish giants are also situated on opposite sides of the Champions League draw, and therefore have the potential to meet in the final of the world's biggest tournament. Considering how dominant these two teams have been in European soccer, especially this century, it's rather surprising that they have rarely faced off in the Champions League.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have won 12 of the 25 Champions League trophies since 2000, but they have only met twice in the entire Champions League era (since 1992) - in the 2001-02 and 2011-12 semifinals. They have also met twice more over two legs in consecutive seasons, in the Europa League semifinals in 1959-60 and the first round in 1960-61, but four draws in the tournament's entire history isn't much.

They have also never met in a final, and the prospect of that finally materializing this season is mouth-watering. The last four official meetings between the two teams have produced a whopping 25 yellow cards and two red cards, and none of those matches have hung in the balance like the Champions League final.

Even if that doesn't happen, though, we're sure to see these two teams vying for a number of other trophies, as both teams advanced from last week's semifinal scare and the Copa del Rey final at the end of April. It will be the first Clásico final of any kind in the same tournament since the 2013-14 season. That match was won in dramatic fashion by the famous Gareth Bale goal.

However, Real Madrid suffered a major slip-up in last week's semi-final second leg at home to Real Sociedad when they fell behind 3-2 on aggregate with 10 minutes left to play. They then took the lead with two goals, but conceded again to send the game into extra time. However, with just five minutes left before the game went to penalties, Antonio Rüdiger came up with a corner kick to help his side win 5-4 on aggregate.

Barcelona's second leg victory was much easier as they beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 thanks to a brilliant first half goal from Ferran Torres. They were the better team on the night and deserved to advance.

However, the first leg of that semi-final was as dramatic as they come, with Atletico going 2-0 up but Barcelona scoring just four unanswered goals before conceding two late goals to draw 4-4.

Perhaps if you want drama, Spain's domestic cup competitions are your place, and the Copa del Rey Clásico final could be an incredible recipe. It would certainly be much more discreet than the Champions League final, which has so much at stake that it could become a much more entertaining match.

However, there is still a long way to go before we can compare the Clásico finals of the different competitions, and no one should overlook Paris Saint-Germain or Inter Milan, who are potential semi-finalists for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, or indeed the other four teams in the Champions League quarter-finals. After all, Arsenal are slight favorites to beat Real Madrid in the quarterfinals in the eyes of the Opta supercomputer. Bayern Munich, Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund are less favored, but all have strengths that should not be underestimated.

Paris Saint-Germain face Villa and former boss Unai Emery, who is a master of the European game, but the French champions have emerged as one of the best teams in the tournament after an unconvincing start to the league stage.

Considering their domestic dominance, it may come as no surprise to discover that after Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain are the Champions League quarter-finalists most often in contention for the treble. They're at that stage now, but they've still sought the treble in four of the last six seasons, having been beaten under Thomas Tuchel in 2019-20 when a win would have secured the treble (although it's worth noting that they were awarded the Ligue 1 title after the season ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So perhaps the treble purists amongst us wouldn't consider this a true three-pronged victory).

They have already achieved the second biggest aggregate win in Champions League history (10-0 vs Brest) and appear to be genuine contenders having knocked out previous title favorites Liverpool in the knockout stages of the season. They remain unbeaten in domestic competition all season.

Inter Milan, the other Triple Crown hopefuls, have a bigger job on their shoulders. They still have a Coppa Italia second-round match against Milan to overcome (they drew 1-1 in the first leg last week) and are just four points clear at the top of the Serie A standings, one game ahead of second-placed Napoli, who will face Bologna on Monday. Bayern will also be formidable opponents in their Champions League quarterfinal.

However, Inter Milan have plenty of pedigree in Europe's biggest tournament, having reached the final only two years ago and won the treble in 2009-10 under Jose Mourinho. They are on course to win a second title this season.

This will be Barcelona's third treble victory, but it will be Paris Saint-Germain's first, and interestingly enough, Real Madrid's as well considering their record 15 Europa League/Champions League wins. Last season was the fifth time they won the league and Europa League double, while despite winning a record 36 La Liga titles, they have only won four domestic doubles.

Winning the Triple Crown is obviously very, very difficult, but this season, we have a better chance than usual of seeing history made.