Club football's ultimate battle
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The teams are German and Italian, the coaches Portuguese and Dutch and the match is in Madrid. Tomorrow's European final sees two of the game's most intriguing managers - Dutch master Luis Van Gaal and the self-proclaimed "Special One" Jose Mourinho - lock horns on Europe's biggest stage.
Although both finalists, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, have won their domestic league and cup trophies, failure to take home Europe's most coveted title will be a bitter pill.
Both coaches have previously trained Champions League winning sides. Munich coach Luis van Gaal won the competition with Ajax in 1995, while Milan's Jose Mourinho took Porto all the way in 2004.
Milan are favourites but their opponents Munich are no pushovers - they have already upset a much-fancied Manchester United team in the quarterfinals. Munich, however, will have to cope without star player Franck Ribery, who is serving a ban following a red card in the previous round.
The media frenzy has as usual centred on the one-man PR machine that is Jose Mourinho. A man who courts controversy the same way most coaches value privacy. He once served under Van Gaal as his interpreter at Barcelona - a fact the Munich fans are bound to remind him of during tomorrow's final.
"This is the most important game of football on the planet, more important than the World Cup final," a confident Mourinho told journalists ahead of the final. But as every football fan knows, you should never bet against the Germans.
