Munich - One final, two Bundesliga clubs, 22 gladiators: These players will determine the outcome of the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League decider between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium on 25 May.
bundesliga.com outlines the careers and key facts of the protagonists.
Career details
Born and bred in Bavaria, no player has come to embody FC Bayern Munich more thanBastian Schweinsteiger in recent history. Born in Kolbermoor, the home town of eminent Bayern midfielder and 1972 World Cup winner Paul Breitner, he joined FC Bayern in 1998 just short of his 14th birthday, a moment that marks the start of his meteoric rise to the top of the world game. Like Breitner before him, Schweini showed immense promise from an early age and made his Bundesliga debut as early as December 2002 in a 3-0 win over VfB Stuttgart. Originally a wide midfielder, he was moved into central midfield by former coach Louis van Gaal, and his energy, passing ability and all-round footballing brain have turned him into one of the most feared midfielders in the game.
In the 299 Bundesliga games he has played since his first taste of German top-flight football, he has helped Bayern to six Bundesliga titles, as well as five DFB Cup triumphs, but the prize on his mind now will be the UEFA Champions League. After losing in the 2010 final and missing the crucial penalty in last season’s agonising defeat to Chelsea FC in the Allianz Arena, Schweinsteiger might feel he is now due to lift the most prestigious trophy in club football.
Schweinsteiger has also been a German international since June 2004 and is as important to die Nationalmannschaft as he is to FC Bayern, having made 98 appearances for his country, appearing in no less than five major tournaments thus far.
Champions League key facts
• Schweinsteiger has assisted five goals in this season’s Champions League, a number bettered only by Paris Saint-Germain's Zlatan Ibrahimovic (seven) and Borussia Dortmund's Mario Götze (eight). In his previous nine campaigns in Europe’s premier club competition he never made more than three assists.
• He has also scored two goals himself, against Valencia CF and LOSC Lille, more than he has ever managed in one Champions League season.
• Bayern have won the last six European games that Schweinsteiger has started. He missed the defeat to Arsenal FC in the last sixteen second-leg due to suspension.
Dortmund: Weidenfeller - Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer - Gündogan, Bender - Blaszczykowski, Götze, Reus - Lewandowski
Bayern: Neuer - Lahm, Boateng, Dante, Alaba - Schweinsteiger, Martinez - Robben, Müller, Ribery - Mandzukic
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