The hype ahead of the Chelsea v Man Utd UEFA Champions League final in Moscow is comparable to an England World Cup quarter final; and there’s every possibility tonight’s game will be a very dissapointing game that could end in penalty tears.

There are two injury doubts but both are being played down.  Chelsea have stated that Ashley Cole is fit to play, following the madman two-footed challenge by Claude Makele in yesterday’s training session, and Alex Ferguson categorically stated at the press conference that Nemanja Vidic is fit to play even thuogh he missed Man Utd’s training session yesterday.

Those two players performances could be vital.  Ashley Cole will need to stop Christiano Ronaldo having too much influence on the game, and Nemana Vidic will need to be 100% fit if Didier Drogba is on fire.

In recent encounters Ricardo Carvalho has played well against Wayne Rooney for Chelsea and Portugal.  But where will the excellent Michael Essien play?

I think Avram Grant will play him right back to make way for Claude Makele in the Chelsea midfield.  I personally believe this gives Chelsea an unbalanced line-up as Essien is like a dog on a leash being held back from making bursting runs through the centre of midfield that is one of his main strengths.

I predict the teams will be:

Chelsea: Cech, Essien, Terry, Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Makele, Lampard, Ballack, Joe Cole, Drogba, Malouda

Man Utd: Van Der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Hargreaves, Scholes, Carrick, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez

And I predict the game will be too tight to call, with a 2-1 scoreline.