Final countdown

Tuesday

17:02 There's plenty of activity at Carrington on Wednesday; it's Champions League final press day. Sir Alex briefs the media at 9am, then after training the players are herded like cattle in front of lots of news-hungry journos with microphones. So we'll bring you an update from that. (BH)

13:30 Eight days to go and we're already discussing the final line-up in the office. Here are our predictions (post yours on the message board thread):

Ben Hibbs (4-3-3): Van der Sar; O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Scholes, Carrick, Anderson; Rooney, Berbatov, Ronaldo.
Subs: Kuszczak, Neville, Evans, Giggs, Park, Tevez, Macheda.
Why? Without Alves and Abidal on Barca's flanks, Rooney and Ronny can cause maximum damage, Berbatov is key to keeping possession, and Anderson adds energy that Fletcher would've provided. My final bench spot was between Rafael, Nani, Welbeck and Macheda, and Kiko, in his home city, just gets my vote.

Paul Davies (4-3-3): Van der Sar; O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Anderson, Carrick, Giggs; Park, Ronaldo, Rooney.
Subs: Kuszczak, Neville, Evans, Scholes, Nani, Tevez, Berbatov.
Why? I found it easy to pick my team: the one that devastated Arsenal in the semis, but Giggsy's in for the suspended Fletcher. Park missed out in Moscow, but I think he’ll be the first Korean to play in a final, and key to how we play: hardworking, with pacey counter-attacks. Toughest choice was Gary Nev or Rafael on the bench – I went for our skipper for his experience.