Bayern aiming for rare home final success

Munich: Bayern Munich take on Chelsea in the Champions League final later on Saturday, with the Germans hoping to become European kings for the fifth time and the English attempting to reach the pinnacle of the game for the first time ever. Both teams have a string of suspensions, with Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes missing three key players and Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo having to replace four. Should Bayern win their first Champions League title since 2001, they will become the first team since Inter Milan in 1965 to lift the European Cup at home, and only the third to do so since the competition started out as the European Champions Cup in 1955-56. [caption id=“attachment_314887” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Chelsea supporters celebrate during a party in Munich downtown. Reuters”]  [/caption] The only other club to win the trophy in their home stadium were Real Madrid in 1957. The other link with Real is that Heynckes coached Madrid to victory in 1998, and he himself would become only the fourth man to coach two different clubs to European Cup/Champions League success if Bayern are victorious. “This is the highlight of our history,” said Bayern president Uli Hoeness, who won the biggest club prize in European football both as a Bayern player in the 1970s and as the club’s sports director in 2001. “It is the ideal situation for us, one which will most likely be unique.” Chelsea, who won the European Cup Winners Cup twice, reached the Champions League final in 2008, losing to Manchester United on penalties in Moscow, while Bayern lost the 2010 final to Inter Milan in Madrid. More than 63,000 fans will be at the Allianz Arena, with a further 100,000 expected to flood several public viewing areas in the Bavarian capital. Munich police, who will have a heavy presence in the stadium and the city, said they expected 30,000 English fans. Reuters