Preview: 2013 Champions League Final
Irony is something we often see in football and this Saturday there will be more of that on show than most weeks. At the home of English football the biggest prize in club football - the Champions League trophy - will be contested. By two German sides.
Yes, that's right, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will contest the final in our own back yard. The irony given England s record and games against Germany aside, all eyes are on the Bundesliga as the season ends and the question over a shift in power and just who will win the tie begins.
Fans of the Premier League have for the most have long thought it was the English league along with La Liga - home to Leo Messi and of course Cristiano Ronaldo - who were set to battle it out for best league in the world. Now up steps the Bundesliga with two teams in the final, players who would walk into any side in the world, massive crowds and more than reasonable prices.
A season ticket for Bayern Munich can cost you as little as £94. Given the fact they play in the Allianz Arena - hardly Turf Moor, it is little wonder they and Dortmund manage to fill their seats all the way down to the lower tiers when the extortionately priced top leagues in England and Spain cannot.
When the attention is turned to the players on show this weekend, a couple of seasons ago we knew little about the majority of the Bundesliga players, with the exception of players like Manuel Neuer and Bastian Schweinsteiger aside, yet now both BVB and Bayern have a host of players who are household names all over Europe.
Both managers in charge of their respective sides ahead of the final also have plenty to prove. Jurgen Klopp is of course attempting to take a team who have come from nowhere to be Champions of Germany last season and Wembley finalists this season and really show the footballing world he is one to watch as a manager.
Bayern s Jupp Heynckes is of course leaving the club and most likely football this summer to retire - and what a way to go out - leading your team to the treble. Even incoming manager Pep Guardiola would struggle to top that!
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In terms of players, Mario Gotze perhaps received the most attention in the build up to the game having just announced that he would be leaving BVB for rivals Bayern which went down about as well as John Terry turning up at the Ferdinand family s house for Sunday lunch. Gotze has now been ruled out of the final - something the player himself may see as a blessing in disguise.
There are also players such as Robert Lewandowski on show, who we all know not only because of his sensational performance in the competition up till now but also his links to Manchester United. BVB are by no means a two player team however and the likes of Marco Reus, Mats Hummels and Sven Bender also on show and all keen to prove they can do it on the biggest stage of all.
Bayern Munich are more of a known quantity so to speak and it is not the talent of players such as Frank Ribery, Philip Lahm and Mario Gomez that will see them crowned Champions of Europe. Nor is it the fact that they have beaten BVB to both the domestic cup final and also the League in the shortest time ever - it is far more than that for the Bavarian Giants.
The team are mentally scarred from last season - yes they may have lost a final to Inter Milan during their treble winning season and every loss hurts - of course it does - but that is incomparable to losing a final in your home stadium against a team who have not only a depleted squad but also an interim manager at the helm and Bayern as we all know did just that.
The faces of the players after Drogba netted the penalty that will forever be written in the stars is not an easy thing to forget and most smart money would have been on the club to steamroll all in front of them this season - especially in Europe - something they have duly done. So confident of winning are Bayern that they have booked a bar out in central London, complete with an extended licence until 5am and a full celebratory meal. One hopes for their sake they will not be left drowning their sorrows like last season.
Either way, the final may for some signal a shift in the power houses of football, and no matter what your viewpoint on that, it will be one to watch either to see the hipsters choice of club Dortmund squash the giants of Bayern or to see the German Champions really crown themselves as the team of this season and probably the next few to come.
Who are you backing to win the 2013 Champions League Final? Let us know. Join the conversation online, on Twitter on Facebook.
