Hola Lisboa! A Preview of the Champions League Final!

Estadio de Luz, Lisbon - the venue for this Saturday's Champions League Final

Portugal's beautiful capital is set for an invasion from big brother Spain this week with Atletico and Real fans from the capital Madrid set to converge on Praca do Comercio and Lisbon's many other squares in the days leading up to Saturday night's final.

It is the first time that the European Cup will be contested by clubs from the same city and the 2nd time the European Cup will be contested by two Spanish clubs - a testament to Spanish football perhaps. Such is the format of the Champions League nowadays that such situations are very much possible.

Atletico Madrid may be Spanish champions after their tremendous 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou on Saturday night but it is Real Madrid who are the favourites going into this game - Real have more experience at this stage of the competition, while this is the furthest Atletico have been in this competition since their defeat to Bayern Munich in the early 1970s.

Plus they have officially the best player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo along with several others who would be in the list of top ten players in the world, i.e. Gareth Bale, Angel di Maria, Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Iker Casillas, etc.

At the same time, the pressure is huge on Real Madrid with talk focused on La Decima - victory on Saturday would be Real Madrid's 10th victory of Europe's premier club competition.

That would suit the poorer cousins who have already shown this season that they can beat the favourites - that draw at the Camp Nou and 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge against Jose Mourinho's Chelsea good examples. They do have world class players to boot, i.e. Thibault Courtois, Diego Godin, Koke, David Villa.

It's a shame that they will probably miss their best player this season - Diego Costa's absence along with Turkey international winger, Arda Turan will be keenly felt in a do-or-die game like this.

Not that Real Madrid have major injury doubts - although the club have gone some way in assuring fans that Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be fit for the Final this Saturday.

What a way to cap off an epic season for Spanish football. This should be a cracking Final.

My tip - 2-0 to Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo getting an early goal.