Saturday sees the first all-German Champions League final when Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich take on Jurgen Klopp's free-flowing Borussia Dortmund side at Wembley.
Here, Sportsmail looks at the crucial battles, the best stats and the stories of the tournament so far in the big countdown to Saturday's showpiece.
Wear it well: The official T-Shirt on sale for the final, with the club badges both German for the first time
THE KEY BATTLES
MARIO MANDZUKIC v NEVEN SUBOTIC
Croatian hitman Mario Mandzukic has plundered 20 goals for Bayern this season, but has managed only two in the Champions League, where strike partner Thomas Muller has chalked up eight. Mandzukic will be out to spearhead Munich’s formidable frontline, which also includes widemen Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, at Wembley, but faces a tough adversary in Serbia international Neven Subotic.
Standing alongside former Bayern player Mats Hummels, the 24-year-old has developed into one of the most impressive defenders in German football, linking him with big-money moves to Chelsea and Manchester City.
Head-to-head: Dortmund's Neven Subotic (right) will have to contend with Mario Mandzukic's attacking threat
BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER v MARIO GOTZE
Still only 28, German international Schweinsteiger has been a mainstay of the Bayern team for over a decade, yet the tireless all-action midfielder has twice now been a loser in the Champions League final.
Should Gotze shrug off a thigh injury sustained in the semi-final win over Barcelona, the 20-year-old will get the chance to show Bayern just why he was worth a German record 37million Euro transfer with a masterclass at Wembley, where he will be out to heap more European Cup misery on his future employers.
Midfield dynamos: Mario Gotze (right) will hope to triumph over future team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger
DANTE v ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI
Signed from Borussia Monchengladbach last summer, Brazilian Dante wasted little time in establishing himself as a key member of a miserly Bayern backline that has conceded just 15 goals in 33 Bundesliga matches so for this season - 21 goals less than the next-best defence in the division - and equalled a club-record of 20 league clean sheets.
The left-footed defender will need to show all of his composure to help shackle Poland forward Lewandowski, who crashed in all four goals to sink Real Madrid in their semi-final first leg at the Westfalenstadion.
Match-up: Bayern's Brazilian defender Dante will have to face Dortmund's semi-final hero Robert Lewandowski
STAT ATTACK
- This final will be the first all-German clash in a European Cup final. 2000 (Spain), 2003 (Italy) and 2008 (England) are the three previous occasions of teams from the country meeting in the Champions League final.
- A German team is guaranteed to win the Champions League for a third time. Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern in 2001 were the previous winners.
- Bayern Munich have lost three of the four finals they have played in. Borussia Dortmund were victorious in the only final they have played.
Champions: Dortmund have won their only previous Champions League final, against Juventus in 1997
- Only once before have two German teams met in the final of a European competition. In 1980, Eintracht Frankfurt won the UEFA Cup beating Borussia Mönchenglad¬bach in the final (losing 2-3 away in the first leg before winning the second 1-0 at home). Gladbach coach back then was Jupp Heynckes, the current Bayern boss.
- Dortmund are undefeated against Bayern in their last six league games (four wins, two draws). However, Munich are undefeated in four competitive games this season (two wins in the Super Cup and DFB-Pokal and two draws in the Bundesliga).
- The last duel on neutral ground between Bayern and Dortmund was the 2012 DFB-Pokal final. Dortmund won 5-2.
- Bayern won all four games in the Quarter Final and Semi Finals without conceding a goal (11-0 on aggregate). They are only the fifth team in Champions League history to not concede a goal in any of their four matches in these two rounds.
Dejection: Bayern have lost three of their four finals, including last year against Chelsea (above)
- This is Jupp Heynckes’ third Champions League campaign as a coach. In all three seasons he has reached the final. In 1998 he won the trophy with Real Madrid and last year, he lost the final with Bayern Munich.
- Bayern could become the first German team to win the Treble (league championship, domestic cup, and the Champions League or European Cup). Six clubs have managed it previously; with the last being Inter Milan in 2010.
- Mario Götze will transfer to Bayern Munich this summer for a fee of 37 million euros. Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic had more assists in this Champions League campaign (7) than Götze (5).
Farewell: Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes will take charge of his third final - in his third Champions League campaign
Applause: Charismatic Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp will hope to sustain the team's form from the semi-final
- Only Cristiano Ronaldo (12) has scored more goals in the Champions League this season than Robert Lewandowski (10). Bayern’s top scorer is Thomas Müller with eight.
- Neven Subotic (133) and Mats Hummels (106) have been forced into making more clearances than any other players in the Champions League this season.
- Javi Martinez has made 39 interceptions; more than any other player in the Champions League this season. Only Arturo Vidal (44) has made more tackles than Martinez’s midfield partner Bastian Schweinsteiger (43).
In action: Bayern's Javi Martinez (right) has made more interceptions than any other player in the tournament
- Six of the 10 goals Bayern have conceded in the competition this season have been scored in the final 15 minutes of their matches.
- Bayern have scored more headed goals in the Champions League than any other side this season.
- BVB have kept just three clean sheets in their last 12 European matches.
- Just one of the last five Champions League finals has gone over 2.5 goals. However, that final was also played at Wembley (Barcelona 3-1 Manchester United in 2011).
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