This time, no, this time the UEFA Champions League did pass by, and the prized trophy went to Chelsea on penalties to wipe out any bad memories. They had to wait for the last kick in the final round of spot-kicks and it was converted by Didier Drogba to give Roman Abramovich his dream Champions League trophy and it also qualifies them for next season’s competition...

If this was WWII we would be getting ready for the “D” Day and waiting for the “H” hour. The new Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich, hosts its very first UEFA Champions League Final despite another three finals taking place in the city in the past: in 1979 Nottingham Forest were the victors against Malmoe, in 1993 it was the turn of Olympique Marseille vs AC Milan and in 1997 Borussia Dortmund lifted the Cup after winning to Juventus...

Just as I was about to start watching last night’s final in Bucharest, I had a load of stats on my desk which OPTA always send me and which I always look through carefully when preparing to write about the matches for this forum. There are those who say that stats are just that, stats, and they can’t tell you much. But they can at least throw up some curious coincidences or some interesting things...

The UEFA Europa League Final is nearly upon us and it will feature two Spanish teams who will looking to redress the fact that no La Liga team, against all the forecasts, will be taking part in the Champions League Final in spite of both Barcelona and Real Madrid being favourites to be there...