Often renowned as the biggest game in club football in the world, the cream of European will descend on north London in May to battle it out for the crown of European Champions. We now know the two teams who will contest the UEFA Champions League Final, in a return of the 2009 Final FC Barcelona will face Manchester United.
Having previously lost their two past semi-final meetings with Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola's side emerged 3-1 winners on aggregate on Tuesday evening and they were joined at Wembley, which carries historical significance for both clubs, by Manchester United. 2-0 winners in the Veltins Arena,
United emphatically sealed their place with a 4-1 win at Old Trafford on Wednesday as Antonio Valencia, Darron Gibson and a brace from Anderson set them on their way to Wembley.
Both will feel it is in their destiny to be the first winners of the UEFA Champions League at the new Wembley. Indeed both sides won the competition for the very first time at the English national stadium. Sir Matt Busby led his team to a triumph over Benfica and Eusebio in London in 1968, while Barcelona ended a lengthy wait for a first victory in 1992 as Johann Cruyff took his team, containing current Barca boss Josep Guardiola in midfield, to glory against Sampdoria. Having recovered from the Munich Air Disaster ten years earlier, it was an emotional triumph for Busby, Bobby Charlton and the United fans at Wembley as they were crowned European Champions in 1968. Charlton scored two of the four goals, George Best and birthday boy Brian Kidd got the other two.
Barcelona also required extra-time to win the trophy, with Ronald Koeman getting the crucial goal that saw them over the line. The first European Cup Final at Wembley saw AC Milan beat Benfica 2-1 in 1963, and of the five finals in the capital there have been two English winners. Liverpool lifted the European Cup in 1978 when they defeated Club Brugge by a solitary Kenny Dalglish goal. Johann Cruyff was also involved in the other Wembley Final, as he played in the Ajax team that won their first of three successive European Cups in 1971. Dick Van Dijk and Arie Haan got the goals in a win over Panathinaikos.
Manchester United meet Barcelona in a reprisal of the 2009 Final in Rome when goals from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi were enough to see the trophy returning to Catalonia for a third time, the same number of times it has resided in Manchester. But who will take the crown for a fourth time?
