كتب : Omar AbdelAziz
The vicious rivalry between the two teams was quiet obvious when they set up a fiery finale to the Premiership, which was decided on the last week in United's favor.
Motives are different this time though, United eyeing a sensational double, while Chelsea are looking to avenge their Premiership title defeat.
The domestic title was the 10th for United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, but the Scotsman wants to add more to his team's European achievements, which includes one Champions League trophy.
Weakness
"Our history is an illustrious one but there is a weakness in terms of the number of European trophies we’ve won," Ferguson said at a news conference.
"I hope we can go some way towards making that better."
Ferguson is also hoping to enhance another poor record, which is the head-to-head confrontations with Chelsea, who only lost two times in 14 previous games against Ferguson's men.
"You mention the record, it’s a bad one, but I don’t pay attention to those and I back the players to do a job and trust them," he said.
"Our overall record this season and last season demands respect, our consistency in the last two seasons warrants that.
"Chelsea are a physically stronger team than most of the Premier League teams but we don’t need to match that, there’s no point matching that.
"We have to play with our main strengths; movement, passing and the ability to create openings. We are good at that and I don’t want us to change. I think it's a very well balanced game."
The United tactician has a full-strength squad to select his starting eleven on Wednesday night.
As for Ferguson's counterpart Avram Grant, the Israeli admits that he is up against a more experienced opposition in his first ever European final.
Most Important
"Look, we are here today nine days after the league finished," Grant said.
"If it’s a normal season for Chelsea we would be on vacation now, but we’re here and we’ve reached maybe the most important game for two teams in the world.
"But me, personally, I’m not the most important man here.
"First, I really respect Alex as a person, and as a manager. He’s done great things. It’s his second time in the final, and the first one, he won. I’m now in my first final.
"I don’t think it’s important. We’ve done our work and now it’s down to the players. I respect him, but I want to win. On the tactical side, I don’t think there are any surprises."
Chelsea are sweating on the fitness of full-back Ashley Cole, who picked up an ankle injury on Tuesday.
Apart from the Cole scare, the Blues have no other concerns.