Bayern, Dortmund eye Champions League glory

The home of English football will reverberate to the roar of German voices on Saturday when Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund collide at Wembley Stadium in the first all-Bundesliga final in Champions League history.

It is only two years since Barcelona confirmed their status as Europe's pre-eminent side by outclassing Manchester United in the same arena to win the 2011 tournament, but the way that Bayern and Dortmund have torn through this season's competition suggests a new continental order is asserting itself.

Bayern left Barca in ruins with an incredible 7-0 aggregate win in the semi-finals, while Dortmund's 4-1 defeat of Real Madrid in the same round left the football world open-mouthed in amazement.

Irrespective of the result, it is certain to be a monumental evening for German football, but the two sides approach the game driven by very different motivations.

For Bayern, the game represents an opportunity to make amends for painful final defeats in 2010 and, in particular, 2012, when a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out loss to Chelsea was played out before a crowd of horrified and disbelieving fans at their own Allianz Arena.

Dortmund, the 1997 champions, yearn to inflict further misery upon Bayern, who have gravely undermined their opponents' attempts to establish themselves as creditable long-term rivals by snatching away star playmaker Mario Goetze in a sensational 37 million euros (£31.7 million, $47.8 million) transfer.

A hamstring injury to Goetze has reduced the risk of diplomatic embarrassment on Saturday, but Bayern are also believed to lead the race for Dortmund's Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who put Madrid to the sword with an extraordinary four-goal haul in the first leg of their semi-final.

Goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller has tried to downplay the significance of Goetze's injury by pointing to the 2012 German Cup final, when Dortmund thrashed Bayern 5-2 in his absence.

"It goes without saying that with him we have a different quality," he said. "But everything shouldn't rest on him. In the DFB-Pokal final in 2012, Mario also didn't play."

After losing five times in a row to Dortmund during the Ruhr club's back-to-back Bundesliga title successes in 2011 and 2012, Bayern have redressed the balance this season, avoiding defeat in all four of their most recent contests en route to a nigh-on flawless triumph in the German title race.

Saturday's game will be the 101st competitive meeting between the sides and after seven encounters over the last two seasons, Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes believes there is little scope for sleight of hand.

"Both teams know each other very well, both trainers are fully informed about the opponent, so there are no secrets," he said.

Heynckes can become only the fourth coach to win the competition with two different clubs, having previously led Madrid to their eighth Champions League title in 1998.

It will, however, be the 68-year-old's final match in the dug-out.

He has announced his retirement after former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was appointed to succeed him, despite a phenomenal campaign that could end with Bayern claiming their first ever treble of league, German Cup and Champions League honours.

""We've taken a massive stride towards perfection, and we're aiming for a perfect performance in the final," said midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, whose side will tackle Stuttgart in the German Cup final on June 1. "If we play to our potential, it's very hard for anyone to win against us."

Nine years after almost going bust, Dortmund hope to repeat their shock 1997 success, when a young Lars Ricken, now the club's youth team co-ordinator, came off the bench to seal a 3-1 win over Juventus at Munich's Olympiastadion with an audacious 25-yard chip.

Juergen Klopp's side have charmed neutrals with their breathless counter-attacking football over the last three seasons and the likeable 45-year-old Dortmund manager hopes their rise has not left the impartial observer unmoved.

"We are a club, not a company, but it depends on which kind of story the neutral fan wants to hear," he told British newspaper The Guardian.

"If he respects the story of Bayern, and how much they have won since the 1970s, he can support them. But if he wants the new story, the special story, it must be Dortmund."

Aside from Goetze's confirmed absence, Dortmund also have concerns over the fitness of former Bayern centre-back Mats Hummels, who injured his ankle in Saturday's 2-1 loss to Hoffenheim.

Bayern are missing long-term injury victims Holger Badstuber and Toni Kroos, but unlike 12 months ago, when they were without Badstuber, David Alaba and Luiz Gustavo due to suspension against Chelsea, they are otherwise at full strength.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FACTS AND FIGURES

Saturday's final will be the 58th since the competition began in the 1955-56 season, with Real Madrid winning the first five finals.

- Bayern Munich are third in the all-time list of finalists having appeared in nine previous finals, winning four times, in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 2001, and losing five times, in 1982, 1987, 1999, 2010 and last season, when they lost to Chelsea on penalties in Munich.

- Real Madrid have appeared in a record 12 finals since 1956, followed by AC Milan on 11. Saturday will be Munich's fifth in the Champions League era, only one behind Milan, whose six appearances were between 1993 and 2007.

- Borussia Dortmund are appearing in their second Champions League final after winning on their only other appearance in 1997, when they defeated Juventus 3-1 in Munich.

- Ottmar Hitzfeld is one of only three men to win the European Cup with two different clubs - leading Borussia Dortmund to their 1997 success and winning it with Bayern Munich in 2001.

- The only others to win it with two clubs are Ernst Happel, with Feyenoord in 1970 and SV Hamburg in 1983, and Jose Mourinho with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010.

- Franz Beckenbauer became the first player to captain three successive European Cup-winning teams, with Bayern in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Although Real won five successive cups between 1956 and 1960, they had three different captains.

- Since the Champions League format was introduced in 1992-93, no side has won a greater percentage of their games to lift the trophy than Borussia Dortmund in 1997.

- They won nine of the 11 matches they played - 81.8 per cent. In contrast, when Manchester United won the competition in 1999 their winning percentage was a record low, 45.5 per cent.

- The following season, as defending champions, Borussia beat Bayern 1-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

- The lowest attendance for any finals match was for the replayed final in 1974, when Bayern beat Atletico Madrid 4-0 at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels on Friday, May 17. Only 23,325 watched the match. A crowd of 48,772 watched the original 1-1 draw two days previously.

- Georg Schwarzenbeck scored Bayern's equaliser in the last minute of extra time to force that 1-1 draw, but Bayern experienced heartbreak in the last seconds of time added on for injury in the 1999 final, when Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored to give Manchester United a 2-1 victory in Barcelona - the most dramatic end to any European final.

- This will be the fourth time two clubs from the same country have played each other in the final following Real Madrid v Valenica in 2000, AC Milan v Juventus in 2003 and Manchester United v Chelsea in 2008. Those matches ended in victories for Real, Milan and United, with Milan and United winning on penalties.

- Bayern would become the first club to lift the European Cup twice on penalties if they were to succeed in a shootout. They beat Valencia 5-4 on penalties in 2001 after a 1-1 draw. They would also become the first club to feature in three shootouts in the final if the match ends in a draw, following last season's loss.

- Paulo Sousa became one of only two players to win the European Cup with two different clubs in successive seasons when Borussia Dortmund lifted the trophy in 1997. The previous season he was in the winning Juventus team. Marcel Desailly (Olympique Marseille 1993, AC Milan 1994) is the only other player to achieve the feat.

- Since Bayern won promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965, the two clubs have met 95 times in all senior comptitions, with Bayern winning 41 times, Borussia 25 with 29 matches drawn.

- The record score between the sides was Bayern's 11-1 win over Borussia in the Bundesliga in November 1971, their record victory in the Bundesliga.

- They have met four times this season, with Bayern beating Borussia 2-1 in the season-opening German Super Cup in August and also gaining revenge for their 5-2 defeat in last season's German Cup final with a 1-0 win in the German Cup in February. Their two league matches finished 1-1.

- Bayern's stunning 7-0 aggregate victory over Barcelona was a record winning margin in the semi-finals in the competition since it began in 1955-56. They also hold the record aggregate victory in the knockout rounds in the Champions League era, beating Sporting Lisbon 12-1 on aggregate in a first knockout round match in 2008-09.

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