Murinho vs. his teacher Van Gaal

It was a coincidence for me that last year I have visited two stadiums in Europe, San Siro in Milano where I saw a game and the Allianz Arena in Munich just for a visit. I would never dreamed, that both teams that I have visited would be the finalists in Champion League today.

The real coincidence, however, in Saturday final is that Murinho was an assistant coach manager for Luis van Gaal when he was coaching Barcelona. Van Gaal won a great title with a home team, the European Cup final in 1995 with Ajax Amsterdam beating AC Milan at the final. Murinho did another great achievement 9 years later, when he won the CL with his home team Porto.

Today, will be the first time ever where they play against each others.

I think this game will have no surprise. What I mean that neither teams victory will be considered a surprise. Each of the two teams has the capacity to win the title, though I see little more strength for Inter Milan.

I picked the following exected line-ups from zonalmarking.net site

In general, Inter looks more balanced, but Bayern is a very tactical team that can deal with any game.

I found interesting what Luis Van Gaal told the press:

"It's always possible that the lower level club wins, that's sport." (so, he admits Inter got more strength)
"I think Inter Milan are a very difficult opponent and I think their matches against Chelsea and Barcelona have proved that. I think my philosophy is always to attack. I think Mourinho is more defensive tactically but he has good players who can decide the outcome of a match."

and I liked especially what he said here, it is a big proof, that the game is in the brain as much as in the feet:

"From day one the team tried to understand me. I have a specific way of training not only the body but the mind and this takes time. When I was at Ajax it also took six months for the team to understand my philosophy, and also at Barcelona and Bayern. The chemistry between the players and coach is very important."