I don't think anybody (even the Bayern Munich players ;-)) could begrudge Inter Milan this UEFA Champions League Cup. It's their first UEFA Champions League Cup in 45 years, and also special because they achieved a continental treble (winning their domestic league competition, domestic cup competition, and also the UEFA cup). Inter Milan will go on to challenge Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup soon enough, and have guaranteed themselves a spot in the semi-finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Lets check out how it all went down!

The High Points

• There was no clear favourite before kickoff time … despite a slight shift in the odds in favour of Inter.
• The first goal was scored by Diego Milito, with help from Julio Cesar (Inter's unusually active goalie) and Wesley Sneijder.
• Hamit Altintop's near goal attempt was stopped by Julio Cesar early in the second half
• Milito again scored a goal, this time assisted by Samuel Eto'o.
• Bayern visibly lost their drive after the second goal

The Gossip

• Diego Milito is being widely reported as a 'Rocky lookalike'! I'm not sure if he'd consider that a compliment… but am guessing that since he just won Inter their first cup in 45 years, he doesn’t really care :-)
• Next year's UEFA Champions League will have 2 extra assistant referees, just as the Europa League did this year.
• Jose Mourinho threatened to cry if the journalists made him talk too much about leaving Inter … I'm surprised nobody took up the challenge!

The League of Tweeters

At least some people are taking a bit of time to rejoice, instead of rushing ahead to the next title…

--- keletsomayisa Inter milan has won the uefa champions league yeeeeaaaahhhhh!!!......

--- Kareem1993 Milito owned bayern munich's ass last night inter milan won the italian cup, uefa champions league and italian league :)

--- nkashokbharan Inter Milan have won the UEFA Champions League after beating Bayern Munich 2-0 in the finals. It's the Jose effect! - great manager, he is!

--- YowH final uefa champions league next moring!.bayern v inter.hope inter lost :P

Hopefully you've all called in sick to work … cancelled your dinner plans … and arranged at least a couple of mates to stay up until 4am, watching the UEFA Champpions League finals cup! For the Inter Milan fans, it's going to be a big one - they'll need everybody they can get cheering them on (LIVE!) as they head to the possibility of their first UEFA Champions League cup in around 45 years. And I suppose Bayern might like to feel some friendly vibes too! You'll also want to see where your punting dollar is going … so here's where you can watch the UEFA Champions League Cup live, as well as the official lineup for the match.

Where to watch

On television

If you’re in Australia, the most comfortable place to watch (and also the cheapest), will be live on SBS, the official channel of the world game here. In fact, no matter where you are in the world, there's bound to be at least a little bit of live coverage of the finals. At 4am on the morning of Sunday the 23^rd, the finals match will be broadcast. The only dilemma then is how to avoid falling asleep on the comfy couch!

On the official UEFA site

This is pay-per-view, but if you won't have access to a television or they aren't broadcasting locally on television, it's also a good option. At least you get the whole match, the official commentary, and guaranteed live action.

http://www.livesoccertv.com

The servers are a bit slow, but the site's pretty good!

The lineups

Lineups are one of the most tightly guarded secrets in soccer, it seems … I think I'd have an easier time trying to find out the 11 secret herbs and spices in KFC chicken! It is only 11 hours until the game, and the official lineups are yet to be published. So, here are some of the players we are fairly certain will be playing tonight:

For Bayern

• Mark van Bommel
• Bastian Schweinsteiger
• Arjen Robben

For Inter Milan

• Javier Zanetti
• Estaban Cambiasso
• Wesley Sneijder

These are the players that have been speaking about their upcoming match, anyway. Guess we'll get a couple of surprises in a row!

We'll be back in a couple of days with a wrap up of the final match, shirts over our faces either way!

Ah, the talk has all turned so serious in these last few days before the UEFA Champions League final. That is, when the players and journalists remember that there actually is a pretty big event coming up! Today we're lightening the mood a little. There are plenty of soccer fans that you wouldn't look twice at … that you wouldn’t want to look twice at, in case they thought you were starting a fight! Probably no chance of that with today's sexiest supporters of the UEFA Champions League teams.

Adriana Lima is the current Maybelline girl, and also a Victoria's Secret angel. She's a Brazilian babe, and like our next sexy soccer supporter, is a fan of Italian soccer. Or perhaps at least, the players! Adriana Lima is an Inter Milan supporter. She recently married Marko Jaric, a Serbian basketballer. So our two currently featured sports on the blog have married up - and it's a stunning combination!

She's a singer and songwriter, and although Cristina Scabbia may not play the part of the goddess to the same extent that Adriana Lima, or some of our other soccer babes do, there's no denying that Italian fire! She's an AC Milan fan.

No, we hadn't heard of her either. But Jasmine Tabatabai is German, and a fan of Bayern Munich … so how could we miss her out? And at the risk of alienating the female soccer fans, it would seem that Jasmine Tabatabai wouldn't be averse to being seen and not heard … ;-)

She's not well known outside Germany, but within the country she's an award winning actress and a household name. Veronica Ferres supports Bayern Munich.

Nicole Appleton is one of the sisters from All Saints … she's Canadian, so she doesn't have much choice but to barrack outside her home country. She's a fan of one of the teams with the most showbiz and music biz stars as fans - Arsenal. Kerry Norton, Dido and Dani Behr are also Arsenal fans. The other is definitely Liverpool, with about 15 babelicious supporters from the ranks of the famous people.

Aline Domingos is Brazilian … and it seems that people from Rio love the home of spaghetti and pizza! She doesn't eat too much of it though … she needs to maintain her position as the face of a whole array of cosmetics brands.

Numbers can be pretty interesting … even if you aren't a mathematician! Hear me out, I know I sound like I'm talking crazy talk :-). When you check out the numbers (the team statistics) for the UEFA Champions' League final match in a few days, you'll notice an interesting discrepancy between the bookies' opinion, and UEFA's official 'percentage chance to win' stats. So we decided to have a look at the other numbers that went into UEFA's calculation … in the interests of truth in punting!

Overall chance to win:

Bayern's official percentage from UEFA is 58%, while Inter Milan's is 45%. Perhaps they take the fact that Inter hasn't won a Champions League cup in around 45 years into that reckoning… Interestingly, they've left the percentages up from the rest of the season, and some of the teams that were considered to have a better shot of winning than Inter Milan include Olympiacos, Porto, Sevilla and APOEL. Hmm!

Goals scored for and against

Bayern are equal first for goals scored this season, and have an average of 1.75 per game. Inter Milan has scored only 15 to Bayern's 21, but has a pretty close average of 1.25 per game to Bayern's 1.75.  Interestingly, Bayern has also had far more goals scored against them than Inter - 13 to 9.

Attempts on target versus attempts wide

Bayern's 79 attempts on target reflect their higher percentage over Inter, who've had 60 shots on target. The attempts wide figures are surprisingly similar; however Inter Milan have played fewer games so it would seem that with equal shots, Inter are actually playing more aggressively.

Red and yellow cards

These two teams have been about as 'naughty' as each other - Bayern have received 3 red cards for the season, Inter have received 2. In the yellow card countup, though, Inter comes out on top. They've received 31, versus Bayern's squeaky clean 21. Real Madrid actually received the most yellow cards for the least games played … 22 overall.

Ball possession %

It seems that UEFA's official percentage chance of winning is taken straight from their ball possession time stats! Bayern has 66% here, Inter has 45%.

The end result? It seems that UEFA does have a pretty good basis for backing Bayern over Inter. What they can't take into account though is that hunger to win, and the spirited playing that got Inter through in their match against Barcelona. They beat the odds then … so why not on Saturday!

There's less than a week before the final match of the UEFA Champions League, and the funny thing is, that there are so many other soccer commitments happening, so many other leagues, matches and player swaps to think about, that there really is little discussion about it! I don't know about you, but I'm pumped … Inter Milan did the impossible and beat Barcelona, and I'd love to see them continue that streak for a title I think they deserve. But what does everybody else think about the upcoming UEFA Champions League finals match … ?

The Odds

Well, as always, the bookies' opinion is nearest and dearest to us, and so comes first! The odds of either team winning haven’t changed since we did our last preview post, early last week:

Bayern Munich: 2.38 - 2.40
Inter Milan - 1.57 - 1.57

The Tough Talk

Louis van Gaal is big-noting Bayern's win in the German League, ahead of next Saturday's final with Inter Milan. Bayern won 4-0 against Werder Bremen.  Jose Mourinho might well say, though, "Who's Werder Bremen?". Personally, I think that a quiet victory is not only more classy, but more likely…

Sandro Mazzola was an Inter Milan player from the 60s, and says that he sees many similarities between his side (which enjoyed a long run on top of their game), and the current Inter Milan team. "I think Mourinho is very similar to Herrera in many ways," Sandro Mazzola said. "First, because he immediately brought the ball back into training  … Another parallel is their (jose Mourinho's and Herrera, the coach from Inter Milan's 60s team) relationship with the players and they are also similar in their dealings with the press", said Mazzolo.

The Gossip

Just the quick versions…

• Thiago Motta has been confirmed as suspended for two matches after being sent off in the Barcelona match, meaning that he'll miss the final next Saturday.
• Ivan Cordoba is also in doubt, due to a niggling thigh injury.
• Esteban Canbiasso says that the final is important to Inter, but they can't let those 40 years of history weigh on their performance. Hopefully not!

The League of Tweeters

As is the case across most of the sports reporting world, there is more talk about the 2011 UEFA season than the upcoming final!! Here's what the League of Tweeters thought:

--- ZaphodCamden Been looking at procedures for a quadruple-elimination tournament - complicated but fun. Perhaps the UEFA Champions League should use it :)

--- trill3k RT @sidlowe: Atleti come out to get uefa cup to sound of we are the champions... But calderon not full  (Somebody stole our pun from the Queen song!)

-- NatalieLSmith Arsenal Ladies was great, but next wk going to UEFA Women's Champions League Final! Hoping to get some interviews for the Masters Project

--- kacebonk Angan angan parcendol RT @astikaputri: Next Season : UEFA Champions League Winner ;)

I love soccer photos. Anybody who still believes that women are naturally more emotional than guys because of genetics has obviously paid little attention to soccer over the course of their lives! In addition to all the triumphant, soaring and heart-wrenching photos that soccer games yield, though, there are also some hilariously funny ones … today we break up all the tension and speculation about the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup  with some funny soccer photos. Some are from the UEFA Champions League - we have the information for those ones - and others are classics taken from the net. Unfortunately player and match details aren’t always available for these.

Arrgh! This shot of Ludovic Sane of Bordeaux, and a Lyon player colliding during their quarter finals match really makes you feel their pain. The UEFA site lists the Lyon player as Ieroklis Stoltidis - however this name isn't on their squad listing, so perhaps somebody fell asleep at the switch…

I might just have a little sleep … all this running around has really got Michael Ciani of Bordeaux pooped! Water, shutting out the world via your eyelids … I can't think of much that would feel better in the middle of a high pressure match.

Ah! It's a giant bug, it's coming right for me! Quick, somebody squash it!

Marouane Chamakh might display a lot of guts on the soccer field, but he looks like he's calling for his wife to squash a spider in the shower in this shot! Actually he's just coming to rest after his header goal eased the pressure on Bordeaux during a match.

Arjen Robben was actually swept off his feet by a Lyon player in this shot - but it looks for all the world like it could be a pre-game dancing display, with the wonderfully coordinated uniforms/skin colours, and artful arrangement of arms and legs in the air!

Dida, goalkeeper for Inter Milan, looks like he wants nothing more than a shoulder to cry on after a goal by Manchester United earlier in the competition. Unfortunately, goalposts don't have shoulders, or any horizontal parts …

A classic! We don't know the match, we don't know the players … but we know that we are impressed by their acrobatics, and by the effects of photography on real life!

How could we resist this one! I wonder if the player was bok-bok-bokking like a chook just before the photo was taken … his teammate looks like he was expecting it, but the player at heart of the amusement certainly doesn't!

Given the success of our predictive efforts in the semi finals, we've decided to try our hand at picking the scorers for the finals match of the UEFA Champions League Cup, which will be played on May 22. In the semi-finals rounds, we tipped four players to watch, and three of them scored goals! The only player that didn’t was from Lyon; a team which scored no goals at all. So, lets see how we go this time around …

No teams have been finalised yet - as you know, the team list sometimes remains up in the air until only a day before the match. The players below are speculative only.

Goalies

It looks like Julio Cesar has the task of stopping Bayern's goals for Inter Milan (none of the 3 other team goalies have played this season). Bayern's goalie will most likely be Jorg Butt - who has not only played every game as goalkeeper for Bayern this season, but actually has a goal to his own name!

Inter Milan

The big names of Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto'o and Dejan Stankovic will naturally be a big part of Inter Milan's game in a couple of weeks. But you should also keep your eye on some of the hungrier players, like:

Esteban Cambiasso: This 29 year old Argentinean player has played 11 games this season and scored one goal this season, with 4 to his name overall. He's played 6 full games in a row in the current Champions League, and hasn't been carded at all.

Mario Balotelli: He might be frustrated with Inter Milan, and this might be his last season there - but he may also be looking to impress future clubs, and despite his difficulties with Jose Mourinho, he has played in 8 games so far and scored a goal in the current competition.

Bayern Munich

Ivica Olic and Arjen Robben might be the standout players of the season, but don't discount these up-and-comers - they have plenty of potential!

Thomas Muller: This Bayern forward is only 20 years old, and has scored 2 of his 3 UEFA career goals in the current competition. He almost got red carded against Bordeax in the Group stage, but has kept his nose clean since.

Bastian Schweinsteiger: This midfielder is yet to score a goal in current competition, but has played plenty of full games and is always in there having a go.  

I don't know about you, but I definitely find the European soccer competition setup odd sometimes. They have about three weeks off between the end of one UEFA Champions League Competition and the start of another, they are constantly looking forward but take little time to celebrate a victory … and more obviously, they are obsessed with determining the ultimate "champion of champions of champions"!

If you are the champion of the soccer league in your own country, you earn a spot in the UEFA Champions League; then if you win the UEFA Champions League OR the UEFA Europa League, you can contest the UEFA Super Cup! This year it will be held on the first Friday of August, and in just a few days we'll get to see which team of Atletico and Fulham will be playing against the winner from the Inter Milan/Bayern main event for the UEFA Super Cup. I can only wonder how long before a new level is created, where the Suepr Cup holders face off against yet another champion team from elsewhere for a new ultimate title!

The Match

Club Atletico de Madrid sacked their coach in October, but managed to make it thus far anyway … they are facing a 'battle-hardened' Fulham FC. Fulham have been in the competition from the outset, but Atletico only joined after their exit from the Champions league. Fulham have played 19 in Euroopa league this term, just one game short of Girondins Bordeaux's record of 20 games, set in 1995/96

Club Atletico de Madrid

They may have been eliminated from the UEFA Champions League (knocked out at the group stage by Porto), but they've made it all the way to the end of the UEFA Europa League. We're tipping some of the players to watch will be Simao, a 30-year old Portuguese midfielder with 19 UEFA goals under his belt, as well as forwards Diego Forlan (a 30-year old Uruguayan with 17 UEFA goals), and Sergio Aguero (Argentianian 21-year old with 16 goals in UEFA so far).

Fulham FC

Fulham doesn't have the big goal scorers that Atletico does, but keep your eye on Zoltan Gera, Bobby Zamora and Danny Murphy, each with 7-8 goals under their belt overall in UEFA competition.

With so many different leagues and competitions, football often seems to just roll on and on. There is not such a specific competition phase, celebration phase and off-season … the focus is always on the future. Even with the UEFA Champions League 2009-2010 final just around the corner, the talk is still focusing on the competition for next year!  So today, that's what we're talking about as well. Regardless of whether Italy has three spots or four, and which of the two European mainland countries gets third in the country rankings, this is what we know about the future!

The Venue

Wembley Stadium in London has been selected as the venue for the final of next year's UEFA Champions League. Incredibly, this has been known for over a year - it was decided in Jan 2009.

The Teams

We know that at least two clubs that contested the UEFA Champions League cup this year won’t be doing so next year - Liverpool has been dumped out of the Champions League, as has Juventus. There are rumours that Rafa Benitez's time at Liverpool will be coming to an end after the disappointing results.  Juventus drew in their match at Catania against Napoli recently, meaning they won't be in with a chance next year.

The Draw Dates

The matches for the qualifying rounds will be drawn in June and July of this year, and draws for the playoff round will begin at the start of August. There really is very little time off! Of course, the knockout phase is a while away… it won’t be drawn until mid-March next year.

The Group Stage

The following teams have already made it into the Group Stage, based on their results from 2009-2010 season.

• Chelsea
• Manchester United
• Barcelona
• Real Madrid
• Internazionale
• Roma
• Bayern Munich
• Schalke

• Rubin Kazan
• Spartak Moscow
• Twente
• Panathinaikos
• Rangers

The following teams are yet to be determined, but will be added to the teams above in the Group Stage:

• Third placed team of the 2009–10 Premier League
• Third placed team of the 2009–10 La Liga
• Third placed team of the 2009–10 Serie A
• Champions of the 2009–10 Ligue 1
• Runners-up of the 2009–10 Ligue 1

• Champions of the 2009–10 Ukrainian Premier League
• Champions of the 2009–10 Liga
• Champions of the 2009–10 Portuguese Liga
• Champions of the 2009–10 Turkish Super League

So, there's not much to speculate or ruminate on any more … apart from the biggest question of all. Who's gonna pay out?! Today we do a general review of the UEFA finals match upcoming in around three weeks, between Inter Milan and Bayern.

The Odds

As always, it never seems as clear cut at the conclusion of the competition as it did earlier on. If you'd bet on Barcelona to win the Champions League cup a couple of weeks ago, you would have been offered odds of about 1.5, where every other team (including Inter Milan and Bayern) were getting about 5.0 - here are the odds today. Just a little different!

Bayern Munich: 2.38 - 2.40

Inter Milan - 1.57 - 1.57

The Gossip

There doesn't seem to be too much excitement about the actual final … football fans are constantly looking forward! Now the talk is of UEFA 2011, country rankings and points.

• If Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich, Italy will keep its fourth spot in the Champions League. However, if the win is on penalties, there will only be 3 spots awarded in Serie A next year
• Mario Balotelli is understandably ready to ditch Inter Milan, after he was booed by Inter's own supporters, and suffered heavy criticism at Jose Mourinho's hands. It will be a surprise is Balotelli plays in the UEFA Champions Final in a few weeks.
• This final is effectively a race for third place in the country rankings for UEFA

And, off the topic of the UEFA Champions final, Panathinaikos is looking to hire Carlos Marchena, Valencia captain, over summer; meanwhile Moussa Dembele has confirmed he will leave AZ Alkmaar, and is looking for a spot in Arsenal.

The League of Tweeters

RedwoodSoul can't wait for the UEFA Champions League final!

youefa Watching 'Uefa Champions League 2010 Final - Promo' at Vodpod http://bit.ly/blZLYR

elArequipeno wow, it got LOUD in the stadio olimpico!