The moment everyone has been waiting for has come! The most important match of the season is hosted in Madrid this Saturday. Bayern vs Inter, Van Gaal vs Mourinho, Robben vs Eto’o, Olic vs Milito, Schweinsteiger vs Sneijder, Lahm vs Maicon. The list goes on…

Both teams have already won their domestic championships and cups! Whoever wins the Champions League trophy will manage a treble, something that only 5 clubs have achieved so far: Celtic in 1967, Ajax in 1972, PSV Eindhoven in 1988, Manchester United in 1999 and most recently Barcelona in 2009. Werder Bremen’s captain, Torsten Frings, who got a good taste of Bayern’s tremendous momentum a few days ago at the DFB Cup Final, seems absolutely certain that the Bavarians will complete the treble: “They are just so good at the moment that I am absolutely certain that they are going to win the Champions League. And they would fully deserve it.”

On the other hand, we all remember Roma captain Francesco Totti congratulating Inter for eliminating Barcelona and winning their spot in Madrid’s Final. Of course, since then, Inter beat Roma in both the Cup Final and the title race, so I wouldn’t be 100% sure that, if asked again, Totti would still support Inter, but it’s another statement that clearly shows just how good these finalists really are.

A little history lesson:
Bayern have reached the Champions League (or European Cup, short for European Champion Clubs’ Cup, as it was called until 1992) another seven times since 1973/74.
They won the title 3 times in a row, 1974 against Atletico Madrid, 1975 against Leeds Utd and 1976 against St. Etienne. In 1982 Aston Villa scored midway in the second half and beat them 1-0, in 1987 Porto responded to Bayern’s early goal, by scoring twice, late in the second half to beat them by 2-1 and in 1999 I think we all remember how they lost it against Manchester Utd. Two years later (2001), they beat Valencia thanks to Oliver Kahn, who saved 3 penalties during the shoot-out.

Inter first appeared in a European Champion Clubs’ Cup final earlier than Bayern and they managed to dethrone Real Madrid who had won the first five titles of the competition. In 1964 Inter beat Real Madrid by 3-1 and next season (1965) the final was held at San Siro, so they took full advantage of the home ground to beat Benfica 1-0.
Two years later (1967), they took an early lead against Celtic FC, however they lost it by 2-1. Finally, in 1972, they were no match for Johan Cruyff’s Ajax, one of the best teams the planet has seen, so naturally they lost by 2-0.
Inter have been waiting 38 years for another shot at the title.


Previous meetings:
The two teams have faced each other another four times.
• In the 1988/89 UEFA Cup third round, Inter thought they had gone through to the next round after beating Bayern 2-0 in Munich, however Bayern won 3-1 in Milan and advanced on away goals.
• In the 2006/07 Champions League group stage Bayern beat Inter in Milan by 2-0 and Inter got a 1-1 draw in Munich. Bayern topped the group, Inter finished in 2nd place.
That makes it 2 wins for Bayern, 1 draw and 1 win for Inter.

Bayern v Italian clubs: P28 W9 D7 L12
Inter v German clubs: P28 W13 D8 L7

Van Gaal vs Mourinho:
Van Gaal and Mourinho have both won the European Cup before, Van Gaal with Ajax in 1995 and Mourinho in 2004 with FC Porto.

• Van Gaal has never faced Inter before, however he has faced two Italian clubs as Ajax’s head coach. In the 1992 UEFA Cup final Ajax managed to beat Torino FC on away goals (2-2 in Turin and 0-0 in Amsterdam) and in the 1995 Champions League final Ajax beat AC Milan by 1-0.

• Mourinho faced Bayern Munich as Chelsea’s manager in the 2004/05 Champions League quarter-finals. Chelsea won 4-2 in London and lost 3-2 in Munich, however Mourinho was suspended for both legs.


Both teams have players who have previously participated in Champions League finals.
In fact, if Samuel Eto’o scores he will become the only player to have scored in three finals. Only Alfredo di Stefano has scored in more (five successive) finals. Another Inter player who has played in a Champions League final is Lucio, in 2002 as a Bayer Leverkusen player.
For Bayern, goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt was Lucio’s teammate in 2002 and Mark van Bommel was along side Eto’o in Barcelona when they won the 2006 final.

Ribery will be missed:
Frank Ribery’s final appeal at the CAS was rejected, so Bayern will miss one of their superstars in their most important game of the season. Ribery received a 3-match ban from UEFA for the red card he received following his terrible tackle on Lyon’s Lisandro Lopez in the 1st leg of the semifinals.
Other than that, both teams don’t have any major problems.

Possible Lineups:
Bayern Munich: Butt, Demichelis, Van Buyten, Lahm, Badstuber, Van Bommel Schweinsteiger, Robben, Pranjic, Muller, Olic.
Inter Milan: Julio Cesar, Zanetti, Lucio, Maicon, Samuel, Stankovic, Motta, Sneijder, Cambiasso, Eto’o, Milito.


Betting on the final:
If you can find anything that looks solid, please let me know! I would advise everyone to just sit back, order some pizza, have some friends over and enjoy what promises to be a very entertaining match.
I can only suggest that since bookmakers are treating Inter as the favorites, then automatically Bayern’s win has some value, because in my opinion this is a 50-50 match. Bayern and Inter eliminated Manchester United and Barcelona respectively, both 2009 finalists. Bayern have some weak points in defense, but they have excellent attacking skills, which make me lean towards “both teams to score”, a pick which will add extra drama in the match as I will be supporting one side until they score and then I will support the other side in order to get paid! Plus the odds are great.

Betting Suggestion: Both teams to score/YES (2.00 at Bwin), Bayern to lift the trophy (2.38 at Bet365).