The UEFA Champions League is the pinnacle of European football, the cream of the crop, the best of the best, and their best is better than your best. Period. It began way back in July, 124 games later, 74 teams lay by the wayside, two are left and in true Highlander style “there can be only one.”

It’s full of names that roll off the tongue, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Olympique Marseille, Ajax Amsterdam and now we’re down to Manchester United vs. Chelsea… The English equivalent of the Yanks versus the Sawks! Two teams that are 208 miles apart travel approximately 1,500 miles to Moscow for the biggest match of the European season.

Now, I’ve tried predictions before, and currently I’m batting around .000, but it’s always fun to try, so here I go.

Manchester United

English Premier League champions, the closest thing to a dynasty in English football as they have won the Premier League 10 times since it’s inception in 1992, add in 4 FA Cups, 1 League Cup and 1 Champions League title and you can see they have a pedigree for winning. Throughout the past 16 years, there have been familiar faces in the United side that keeps the team together, like right back Gary Neville, left winger Ryan Giggs and central midfielder Paul Scholes, all of whom have played 350+ games for United. In fact Giggs has played in 535 games, an astounding amount given the way players usually move around.

To get to the final, United overcame a group containing Roma, Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kyiv, then in the knock-out stages they ran over Olympique Lyonnais, Roma (again) and Barcelona to secure their place.

Chelsea

In stark contrast to Manchester United, Chelsea are the classic tale of spending big to win. In 2003 Chelsea were a mediocre team on the cusp of breaking into the top four of English football, what pushed them over was a takeover bid by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, in his first season alone they spend over £100 million on new players, and since then they have kept on spending, this has brought in the silverware in the shape of 2 League titles, 1 FA Cup and 1 League Cup, as well as numerous Champions League semi-final appearances against Liverpool. Also in contrast to the longevity of some United players, the longest serving players on Chelsea are Frank Lampard and John Terry, both with less than 250 appearances.

To get to the final, Chelsea overcame a group of Schalke 04, Rosenborg and Valencia as well as losing their influential manager José Mourinho after the first game again Rosenborg. In the knock-out stages they beat Olympiacos, Fenerbahçe befre finally beating Liverpool.

Now, these teams have met a few times already this year, firstly they drew 1-1 in the season opening Community Shield before United won on penalties, Chelsea then lost 2-0 at Old Trafford a few days after Mourinho left, and finally Chelsea won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge at he end of April. so for those counting at home it’s a 1-1-1 record. Really hard to put anything between them, if anything it might go the way of the Community Shield match, a scoring draw decided on penalties.

My kiss of death is as follows:

Republik Of Mancunia 2 - 2 Chelski (keeping with the Russian theme of the final)
Manchester United to win on penalties.

Just remember, the game is on ESPN2 (not sure if it’s in HD or not) [Ed. -- It's not, sadly No, wait, it is.] today and coverage from the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow begins around 2:30pm EST. Enjoy!