Jose Mourinho is looking to bring long-awaited European glory back to Inter Milan on Saturday, and Louis van Gaal is aiming to guide Bayern Munich to a fifth title in Europe's most prestigious club competition.
The coaches in the Champions League final have won 28 major titles combined, and this year Mourinho will put his reputation as one of the game's best coaches on the line against an experienced manager who has won league titles in four different countries.
Mourinho, who led Chelsea to its first English league title in 50 years, is out to lead one of European football's biggest clubs to its first European Cup triumph since 1965. He will do so amid strong speculation that he will then walk out on the Italian club and move to Real Madrid.
Mourinho has won six league titles in Portugal, England and Italy among his 13 major successes, and the 47-year-old self-proclaimed "Special One" is one of the most sought after coaches in the game.
"In Porto we won UEFA Cup, (league) championship and Portuguese Cup. The next year we won (European) Super Cup, championship and Champions League, so we did all three," Murinho said during the buildup to Saturday's final.
But despite two Premier League titles in a row, the Portuguese coach failed to achieve Champions League success with Chelsea and left the club, unhappy that Russian owner Roman Abramovich was making transfer decisions without his approval.
He eventually took over an Inter side which had dominated Serie A but failed in Europe. The owners wanted someone to end that long wait for another European Cup.
"This would be an incredible achievement because the level of the competition is so high and our road to the final was an incredible road," said Mourinho,whose team had to play defending champion Barcelona both in the group stage and the semifinals.
Inter also beat Chelsea home and away, and his former club went on to win both the Premier League and FA Cup.
"It was an incredibly difficult way to get to the final," Mourinho said.
Bayern also had a tough route to the final but capitalized on a little good fortune along the way.
On the brink of going out, Bayern came from behind to knock out Juventus in the group phase after a 4-1 win away from home. A disputed goal from Miroslav Klose gave Bayern a 2-1 first leg lead over Fiorentina, and the Gern side advanced on away goals in the first knockout round.
Bayern again appeared to be on the way out when it trailed Manchester United 3-0 in the second leg at Old Trafford. But the German club scored two to again go through on away goals.
Bayern went on to beat Lyon and reach its eighth final, then stretched its Bundesliga record number of titles to 22 and outplayed Werder Bremen 4-0 in the German Cup final. Back in November, however, Bayern was in eighth place in the Bundesliga, on the brink of being knocked out of the Champions League. Van Gaal sensed then that his time was short.
"If I don't produce, I will be fired," the 58-year-old Bayern coach said at the time.
The Dutchman won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, so both he and Mourinho are out to join Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970 and Hamburg 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (Borussia Dortmund 1997 and Bayern 2001) as winners with two different clubs.
Bayern's players have called on all fans of Bundesliga clubs to get behind the team on Saturday because a triumph would earn the nation four spots in next season's competition and Serie A would lose one.
Both teams are missing key players. Inter is without Brazil defensive midfielder Thiago Motta and Bayern won't have France winger Franck Ribery. Both were sent off in the semifinals.
Inter has won repeated Italian titles with barely any Italians on its starting lineup and a side packed with talented and hugely experienced players from Brazil and Argentina, and a creative Dutch midfielder in Wesley Sneijder.
Van Gaal's team has a strong Dutch influence, too, with Arjen Robben and Marc van Bommel playing alongside Germany internationals Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm.
English referee Howard Webb will take charge of his first Champions League final. Although a familiar face in the competition for the past few years, he has missed out on the final because Premier League clubs have made it to the previous five, making him ineligible.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com