A fitting Champions League finale

Now, before you clamour angrily for the comments section, ask yourself, in how many other ball sports would you have a team dominating possession 79 per cent to 21 per cent and lose, as Barcelona did in the first leg of the semi-final tie against Chelsea?

By its very nature football is a game of and for the underdog. The objective is simple, with only one way to score. The tactical capacity is immense.

As a result, when a lesser light does achieve the seemingly impossible and qualifies for a final at the expense of a favourite, such as Chelsea did, the sub-plots emerge like twists in a long-running soap opera.

Chelsea is playing under an interim coach having sacked its manager mid-season amid a crisis of confidence and form. The Blues may not even compete on the continental stage next season having muddled their way through the better part of the Premier League campaign.

If form was a guide, Chelsea should never have made it past the group stage, let alone beaten what is considered one of the best attacking club teams in the game's history, over two legs.

Roberto Di Matteo, with his coaching future on the line, has galvanised his much-maligned squad of villains, veterans, heroes and one very well-paid underperforming striker to achieve the football equivalent of David’s knockout win over Goliath.

Fittingly said striker, Fernando Torres, iced the cake and enhanced his unusual reputation for scoring against Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

Whether you love or hate Chelsea, you can't deny it will be a melting pot of fascinating storylines and personalities that converges on Munich in a month.

Chelsea's UCL finale opponent, Bayern Munich, is its own travelling circus of talent, egos and side plots. The German giant missed out on the domestic title for the second season running – the first time it hasn't won the Bundesliga for two straight years since the period from 1992-1996.

Amid undulating from and rumours of a half-time bust-up between emotional basket cases Frank Ribery and Arjen Robben, Bayern beat up on an unusually reserved Real Madrid to set up its chance at achieving a fairytale in front of a home crowd.

If Real Madrid v Barcelona had the potential to excite the Fußball Arena Munchen crowd, Bayern's presence has guaranteed it.

What football fans won't get is the Clasico final Europe has never had, but this is not a bad thing considering the emotion both Bayern and Chelsea will throw at each other as they desperately fight for the one piece of silverware they crave more than any other.

If we take the last Primera Liga Clasico - one that may well decide the title - as a guide of what the UCL decider may have been like, Barcelona looked flat and Real Madrid played without its usual dogged desperation.

Gone were the fights, the tantrums the emotion-charged touches of play, to be replaced by a team that looked lethargic and out of ideas in attack. On that couldn't land the killer blow against a team that sat back and waited for opportunities to counter-attack.

If nothing else, Bayern Munich 'hosting' Chelsea promises to be a truly gripping contest befitting of a sport when more often than not, form counts for little on the day.