Chasing glory,one more time

Mourinho,who led Chelsea to their first English league title in 50 years,is out to lead one of European footballs biggest clubs to their first European Cup triumph since 1965,amid speculation that he will then walk out on the Italian club and move to Real Madrid.

Mourinho has won six league titles in Portugal,England and Italy among his 13 major successes,and the 47-year-old self-proclaimed Special One is one of the most sought after coaches in the game. In Porto we won UEFA Cup,league championship and Portuguese Cup. The next year we won European Super Cup,championship and Champions League,so we did all three, Mourinho said during the build-up to Saturdays final.

But the Portuguese coach failed to achieve Champions League success with Chelsea and left the club,unhappy that Russian owner Roman Abramovich was making transfer decisions without his approval. He eventually took over an Inter side which had dominated Serie A but failed in Europe. This would be an incredible achievement because the level of competition is so high and our road to final was an incredible road, said Mourinho,whose team had to play defending champions Barcelona both in the group stage and the semi-finals.

Bayern also had a tough route to the final but capitalised on a little good fortune along the way. On the brink of going out,Bayern came from behind to knock out Juventus in the group phase after a 4-1 win away from home. A disputed goal from Miroslav Klose gave Bayern a 2-1 first leg lead over Fiorentina,and the German side advanced on away goals in the first knockout round.

Bayern again appeared to be on the way out when they trailed Manchester United 3-0 in the second leg at Old Trafford. But the German club scored two to again go through on away goals. Bayern went on to beat Lyon and reach their eighth final,then stretched their Bundesliga record number of titles to 22 and outplayed Werder Bremen 4-0 in the German Cup final. Back in November,however,they were eighth in the Bundesliga and on the brink of being knocked out of the Champions League. Van Gaal sensed then that his time was short.

The Dutchman won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995,so both he and Mourinho are out to join Ernst Happel Feyenoord 1970 and Hamburg 1983 and Ottmar Hitzfeld Borussia Dortmund 1997 and Bayern 2001 as winners with two different clubs.

Both teams are missing key players. Inter are without Brazil defensive midfielder Thiago Motta and Bayern wont have France winger Franck Ribery. Both were sent off in the semis.