The Champions League has its dream final between a pair of iconic clubs who have come to dominate the best two domestic leagues in the world, as well as Europe's top club competition.
Including this year's final, England and Spain have provided 10 of the past 14 Champions League finalists and, whichever team win tonight, this will be the fourth victory in six years for Manchester United or Barcelona.
One factor that might make it closer than the 2009 final in Rome, where Barcelona were comfortable 2-0 winners, is that United are at home in England at Wembley. Victory has gone to seven of the 10 teams who have appeared in a European Cup final on home soil (two of the three who lost were beaten on penalties) and both Wembley finals featuring an English club have been won by the home side.
United won their first European Cup there in 1968, followed by Liverpool's triumph 10 years later, although Barcelona also have a strong connection with Wembley, having won their first European Cup there in 1992. That Barca 'Dream Team' were coached by Johan Cruyff, the patriarch of the Catalan club who also won at Wembley as a player with Ajax in 1971.
The teams won't be much changed from the 2009 final, with at least seven of the starting line-up on each side likely to be the same, and that means Barcelona must start strong favourites. Once they took an early lead in Rome, Barca left United chasing shadows and Alex Ferguson ran out of ideas about how to stop them.
In Lionel Messi, Barcelona have the world's outstanding player and it is surely just a statistical oddity that he is yet to score in England. He is the leading scorer in the Champions League this season with 11 goals, having also topped the charts in the past two seasons, and his record of opening the scoring in 15 of his 41 starts in La Liga and the Champions League this season makes him the obvious pick for first goalscorer.