Champions League final has found its place

Whatever the entertainment level of the Champions League turns out to be, Uefa deserve credit for the switch to Saturday night. There were certainly few complaints from the relaxed crowds enjoying the pre-match sunshine in Madrid’s squares.

In an era when so many changes in football seem to be made for the benefit of those seeking to exploit the game commercially, the departure from the traditional Wednesday night caters for the interests of the players and the fans.

The trouble with a Wednesday night, from the point of view of the players and their managers, was it came too soon after a weekend that tended to be momentous in the domestic game: a time for settling league titles (as in the case of Inter Milan) or doubles (Bayern Munich).

Under the old schedule, Inter and Bayern would hardly have been able to draw breath before having a quick training session at the Bernabeu in preparation for dragging their weary limbs through the match.

Players at this level, of course, are used to it. Those who go to the World Cup will face the customary fixture arrangement, designed for television, that entails matches being spread out in the early stages - England have nearly a week before their first and second - and then crammed at the end, when they matter most.

One of the finalists will have to play three times in nine days, with little time to get over injuries or fatigue; to me, it always appears inimical to the dignity of the most important and avidly-watched period of world football for four years. It is as if Fifa want to get the thing over before the ‘’football family’’, of whom sponsors have become part, lose interest.

Uefa have shown their global brothers the way and Michel Platini, who announced that the final would take place at the weekend almost as soon as his campaign for the presidency was won, should be congratulated. He has not forgotten how he felt either as a player - three times voted the best in Europe - or a boyhood fan growing up in North-east France.

What the Saturday-night kick-off does is prevent any child from missing the match due to the need to rest in readiness for school next day. The families of relatively few can afford to travel en masse to attend in person, but at least they can look forward to enjoying on television, extra time and penalties or otherwise.

As for those who have come to Madrid, the problem of having to take time off work has been reduced, along with the difficulty of finding cheap flights at a time of business travel. There is an enhanced sense of carnival, and of occasion. After more than half a century, the European Cup final has found its proper place in the calendar.

Ticket4Football.com is the most specialized and fully dedicated football ticket website offering the best place to buy all world cup football tickets. You can buy your favourite Champions League tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system.You can also sell Champions League Final tickets here!.Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Champions League Final tickets.

UEFA Champions League 2010 In-Short

The Santiago Bernabeu faithful may have been dreaming of a different line-up, but the city of Madrid can nonetheless look forward to a sparkling UEFA Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. The Germans have ruled Europe four times, most recently in 2001, while the Italians will be out for their third triumph and first since the golden era of legendary coach Helenio Herrera in 1965. The encounter will likewise provide the loftiest of stages for a reunion between two of this century’s most successful coaches in Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho.

How they qualified

- Bayern snatched second spot in Group A in the final round of games, thanks to an eye-catching 4-1 win away to Juventus. The Bundesliga outfit then just about sneaked past Fiorentina in the last 16, prevailing on away goals following a 2-1 home success and 3-2 away loss, and they repeated those scorelines in the quarter-finals after coming close to cracking against English champions Manchester United. Semi-final opponents Lyon were dealt with more comfortably, on the other hand, as Bayern triumphed 1-0 in Germany before winning 3-0 in France. They are the first finalists since AC Milan in 2003 to have lost four times along the way.

- Inter also finished runners-up in their section, trailing behind Barcelona in Group F. That was followed by a tactical masterstroke from Mourinho to defeat his old side Chelsea 1-0 in London in the wake of a 2-1 home-leg success, before a pair of 1-0 victories put paid to CSKA Moscow in the last eight. The semi-finals reunited I Nerazzurri with defending champions Barcelona, but this time Mourinho’s men came out on top, triumphing 3-1 at the San Siro and restricting the Catalan giants to a 1-0 win on home soil.

Strengths and weaknesses

- Bayern: With Franck Ribery suspended, Bayern are likely to look to Arjen Robben on the right flank to contribute his usual spark. Further forward, Ivica Olic has fired seven goals in the competition this term and will be eager to catch top scorer Lionel Messi, who has eight to his name. The Croatian is likely to be partnered by Thomas Muller, with solid duo Mark van Bommel and Bastian Schweinsteiger patrolling central midfield.

- Inter: Mourinho is expected to employ a 4-2-3-1 formation for the final, showcasing Diego Milito as sole striker. The Portuguese coach is nonetheless a past master at defying expectations and could opt for an attacking configuration boasting five forwards or two banks of four players, evoking the spirit of catenaccio.

The coaches

Mourinho and Van Gaal know each other inside out after the junior of the two served as the latter's assistant at Barcelona from 1997 to 2000. There is plenty of mutual respect between the duo, even if they share very different philosophies of how the game should be played. As a disciple of fellow Dutchman Rinus Michels, Van Gaal favours the spectacular, having developed an attacking style reliant on talented wide players briefed with the task of stretching defences. In contrast, Mourinho has proved adept at instilling a team ethic where previously there had merely been a collection of individuals, and the tactical mastermind enjoys the total dedication of his troops.

The duel

Well-travelled Dutch pair Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben both arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2007, only to find themselves packing their bags again two years later. Sneijder headed to Inter and Robben to Bayern, and neither could have imagined they would now be facing each other in the Champions League final. Before they team up again for the Oranjecause at South Africa 2010, Sneijder and Robben will hope to have the final say on a pitch they know very well.

FIFA World Cup™ hopefuls

Inter can count upon a large percentage of the Brazil rearguard in the shape of goalkeeper Julio Cesar, centre-back Lucio and right-back Maicon, while further down the pitch they boast the talent of Sneijder, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o and Milito of Argentina. The latter's team-mates Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti will not be joining him in South Africa, however, after both were overlooked by Diego Maradona.

Six German internationals ply their trade in the Bayern ranks - Hans-Jorg Butt, Philipp Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose – with Oranje winger Robben handed responsibility for conjuring openings.

The stat

Whoever comes out on top will join Barcelona (2009), Manchester United (1999), PSV (1988), Ajax (1972) and Celtic (1967) as the only teams to have claimed Europe’s premier club prize as well as their domestic league and cup in the same season. Meanwhile, one of the two coaches will match the feats of Ottmar Hitzfeld and Ernst Happel by winning the competition with their second club, Mourinho having tasted glory with Porto in 2004 and Van Gaal with Ajax in 1995.

What they said

"Mourinho is like Helenio Herrera in his working methods, with the attention he gives to the slightest detail, how he prepares individual duels and his ability to transmit a sense of sacrifice to his players,” Massimo Moratti, Inter president.

"It’s not a match between me and Jose. We’re only comparable in terms of how we communicate with our squads. In everything else, we have a different approach to football. Mourinho wants just one thing: to always win. I try to give the spectators a pleasant style of play,” Louis van Gaal, Bayern coach.

Ticket4Football.com is the most specialized and fully dedicated football ticket website offering the best place to buy all world cup football tickets. You can buy your favourite Champions League  tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system. You can also sell Champions League Final tickets here!. Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Champions League Final tickets.

Hampden memories for Madrid and Eintracht

The 2009/10 UEFA Champions League final follows hot on the heels of the 50th anniversary of perhaps the greatest final ever: Real Madrid CF's 7-3 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt in 1959/60.

Los Merengues' fifth successive European Champion Clubs' Cup success was undoubtedly their most impressive, with Miguel Muñoz's side recovering from conceding an opening goal to Richard Kress to lead 3-1 at the break. It was 7-3 by full time with Alfredo di Stéfano hitting a hat-trick and Ferenc Puskás scoring four.

Di Stéfano told UEFA.com: "That was the easiest final; the most difficult one and the easiest. We were losing 1-0. They hit the crossbar as well. When we were 2-1 up we kept attacking because our team was full of good attacking players. By the end it seemed as if we were scoring goals with our hands rather than our feet."

The combination of Puskás and Di Stéfano was a lethal one, although the latter was at pains to underline that the Madrid of 1960 were not a two-man side. "We were fighters, knew each other very well, never gave up, always knew what was needed," he said. "We knew that running would help us win and in our team, everyone ran."

Team-mate Francisco Gento could not fault Di Stéfano's assessment, adding: "It was a football lesson from Real Madrid and it has been acclaimed everywhere in the world. We had to come back on the football pitch because the spectators wanted to applaud us even more and this feeling of elation will remain with me for ever."

It was a lesson that none of the massive crowd at Glasgow's Hampden Park would forget, let alone the Eintracht players. Striker Erwin Stein, who scored twice in the second half, none the less felt for a while that Eintracht – then an amateur side – might be about to pull off an incredible upset.

"We led 1-0, and saw that Real Madrid were totally shocked," he said. "It gave us great hopes of winning. Even after Real made it 1-1, we were still confident. But after Real scored their second, we understood that the Spanish side were too strong. At that time, the difference between Real Madrid and the other clubs was tremendous."

Stein will be among the clutch of surviving members of that Eintracht side who will visit the Spanish capital for this season's UEFA Champions League final, meeting their counterparts from the 1959/60 Madrid side.

Ticket4Football.com is the most specialized and fully dedicated football ticket website offering the best place to buy all world cup football tickets. You can buy your favourite Champions League  tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system. You can also sell Champions League Final tickets here!. Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Champions League Final tickets.

UEFA Champions League:Qualification

As of 2009, the UEFA Champions League commences with a round-robin group stage of 32 teams, which is preceded by two qualification 'streams' for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper. The two streams are divided between teams qualified by virtue of being league champions, and those qualified by virtue of finishing 2nd-4th in their national championship.

The number of teams that each association enters into the UEFA Champions League is based upon the UEFA coefficients of the member associations. These coefficients are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League and UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cupseasons. The higher an association's coefficient, the more teams represent the association in the Champions League, and the fewer qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in.

5 of the remaining ten qualifying places are granted to the winners of a four round qualifying tournament between the remaining 39 or 38 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to later rounds. The other 5 are granted to the winners of a two round qualifying tournament between the 15 clubs from the associations ranked 1-15, which have qualified based upon finishing 2nd-4th in their national league.

In addition to sporting criteria, any club must be licensed by its national association to participate in the Champions league. To obtain a license, club must meet certain stadium, infrastructure and finance requirements.

In 2005-06, Liverpool and Artmedia Bratislava of Slovakia became the first teams to reach the Champions League group phase after playing in all three qualifying rounds. In 2008-09, both BATE and Anorthosis Famagusta achieved the same feat. Barcelona, Manchester United, and Porto are the teams that have appeared most often in the group stage: fourteen times each. FC Porto have only won the tournament once since the establishment of the group stage (2004), Manchester United twice (1999 and 2008) and Barcelona 3 times (1992, 2006 and 2009).

Between 2003 and 2008, no differentiation was made between champions and non-champions in qualification. The sixteen top ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualified directly for the tournament group stage. Prior to this, three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds whittled down the remaining teams, with different teams starting in different rounds.

Ticket4Football.com is the most specialized and fully dedicated football ticket website offering the best place to buy all world cup football tickets. You can buy your favourite Champions League  tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system. You can also sell Champions League Final tickets here!. Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Champions League Final tickets.

UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League (usually referred to as simply the Champions League or historically as the European Cup) is an annual Association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. The final of the competition is - along with the NFL's Super Bowl - the most watched annual sporting event worldwide, drawing just over 100 million television viewers.

Prior to 1992 the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs' Cup but was usually referred to as simply the European Cup or European Champions' Cup. The competition was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a round-robin group phase and more teams. Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams each for the competition. The UEFA Champions League should not be confused with the UEFA Europa League, formerly known as the UEFA Cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round. The 10 surviving teams join 22 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May. Since the tournament changed name and structure in 1992, no club has managed consecutive wins. The winner of the UEFA Champions League qualifies to the FIFA Club World Cup (which replaced the Intercontinental Cup since 2005) as well as the UEFA Super Cup.

The title has been won by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Real Madrid, who have won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested. Spain's La Liga is marginally the most successful league, having amassed 12 wins, all of them from two clubs (the other being FC Barcelona). Italy and England have produced 11 winners between three and four clubs respectively. English teams were controversially banned from the competition for five years following the events at Heysel in 1985. Barcelona are the current champions, having beaten Manchester United 2–0 in the 2008–09 final.

Ticket4Football.com is the most specialized and fully dedicated football ticket website offering the best place to buy all world cup football tickets. You can buy your favourite Champions League  tickets online through our secure and guaranteed online booking system. You can also sell Champions League Final tickets here!. Ticket4Football offers 100% safe and secure online booking system for Champions League Final tickets.