This is It. The Champions League Final Preview.

By: Rob | May 20th, 2008

turf is laid in Moscow So here we are, right at the climax of the club season. Two teams remain standing, Manchester United and Chelsea. After just about taking the title from Chelsea, United will be looking to get another over The Blues, while Chelsea will be out to avenge that and get some silverware themselves. It is going to be absolutely massive.

If you had told me a year ago that I would have been this excited about a game between Man United and Chelsea I would not have believed you. A year ago I had just sat through the most mind numbing football experience of my life, alternatively known as the 2007 FA Cup final. 116 minutes of utter deadlock was broken by one brilliant Frank Lampard pass, and a good Drogba finish and that was it. The only memorable thing in a terrible game.

But alot has changed since then. Jose Mourinho with his desperately negative tactics has been shown the door by Chelsea. His replacement, Avram Grant has taken Chelsea futher than Mourinho ever did in Europe, but still isn’t quite getting the respect you would think he would be. Most importantly, Chelsea are begining to play proper football again, and because Ferguson doesn’t fear Grant in the same way he was afraid of Jose, he won’t play for a 0-0 either. The recent league game between the two (which Chelsea won) was massively entertaining.

So what to expect here? Well both sides will be hungry for this. Both sides will want a win, but neither side will want to loose. What I’m hoping for is an early goal, because then the game could go literally anywhere.

Lets be honest - Russia was not a good idea. Not only have many fans not got in because of visa troubles, cost of tickets and the clubs failuring to sell thier allocation and the like, but UEFA have said they are “slightly worried” about the pitch. What this translates as is “shit, the pitch is awful and we’re deseperately worried that this will turn our showpiece into a crap game of long ball football”. This is the main worry for all of us going into this final frankly. Noone wants last years FA Cup final here.

Alot has been made of the English Club Dominence in the Champions League, and what would be nice, would be to have a real positive advert for English football in this final. Fingers crossed thats what is delivered, and not a 1-0 type match. We’ve been watching all the twists and turns all season, and frankly I just don’t want it to end that way, whoever wins, I hope its because of a great performance.

Several battles are going to key.

Vidic Vs Drogba - Vidic has been playing the mindgames with Drogba this week, and after the Ivory Coast striker stuck one of Vidic’s teeth through the defender’s own cheek, you can probably expect Vidic to be quite fired up. Could decide the match this one.

Cristiano Ronaldo Vs The Big Games - Ronaldo has come out this week and said that he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone. He’s scored against Arsenal, he’s scored against Liverpool. He hasn’t yet scored against Chelsea - though as Ale pointed out to me, he had one cleared off the line - and the CL Final would be a wonderful place to put to bed the rumours he goes missing in big matches.

Rickie Carvalho vs Wayne Rooney - He might have been giving his advice re his countryman Ronaldo, but Carvalho’s main job is going to be to make sure Rooney doesn’t do what he did in the league against Chelsea again.

I honestly don’t know what to predict, which is nice. My heart says I should support United because they have played the better football over the course of the season - although they have occasionally got a little too defensive in the Champions League for my liking. My gut for some reason is convinced Chelsea will do it, I can’t argue with its logic because its just a gut feeling, but something is suggesting to me Chelsea might have the edge.

Using my head, I think it all comes down to Avram Grant. If Avram can fire up his players after losing the league title, I reckon they’ll edge it. If he can’t pick them up from that, then its United’s to loose. It may be a real test of him.

You know what I would love more than anything though? A 4-3. And despite my feeling that United should win as they’ve played attractive football, you know what i would love even more than that? Shevchenko to score a late winner. That’d be a interesting way to write your way into Chelsea folklore.