Mourinho, Van Gaal chase more European glory

MADRID (AP):

Jose Mourinho is looking to bring long-awaited European glory back to Inter Milan tomorrow, and Louis van Gaal is aiming to guide Bayern Munich to a fifth title in Europe's most prestigious club competition.

The coaches in the Champions League final have won 28 major titles combined, and this year Mourinho will put his reputation as one of the game's best coaches on the line against an experienced manager who has won league titles with four different clubs in three countries.

Mourinho, who led Chelsea to their first English league title in 50 years, is out to lead one of European football's biggest clubs to its first European Cup triumph since 1965. He will do so amid strong speculation that he will then walk out on the Italian club and move to Real Madrid.

Mourinho has won six league titles in Portugal, England and Italy among his 13 major successes, and the 47-year-old self-proclaimed 'Special One' is one of the most sought after coaches in the game.

"In Porto we won UEFA Cup, (league) championship and Portuguese Cup. The next year we won (European) Super Cup, championship and Champions League, so we did all three," Mourinho said during the build-up to Saturday's final.

But despite two Premier League titles in a row, the Portuguese coach failed to achieve Champions League success with Chelsea and left the club, unhappy that Russian owner Roman Abramovich was making transfer decisions without his approval.

Ending the long wait

He eventually took over an Inter side which had dominated Serie A but failed in Europe. The owners wanted someone to end that long wait for another European Cup.

"This would be an incredible achievement because the level of the competition is so high and our road to the final was an incredible road," said Mourinho, whose team had to play defending champion Barcelona both in the group stage and the semifinals.

Inter also beat Chelsea home and away, and his former club went on to win both the Premier League and FA Cup.

"It was an incredibly difficult way to get to the final," Mourinho said.

Bayern also had a tough route to the final but capitalised on a little good fortune along the way.

On the brink of going out, Bayern came from behind to knock out Juventus in the group phase after a 4-1 win away from home. A disputed goal from Miroslav Klose gave Bayern a 2-1 first leg lead over Fiorentina, and the German side advanced on away goals in the first knockout round.

Bayern again appeared to be on the way out when they trailed Manchester United 3-0 in the second leg at Old Trafford. But the German club scored two to again go through on away goals.

Bayern went on to beat Lyon and reach their eighth final, then stretched their Bundesliga record number of titles to 22 and outplayed Werder Bremen 4-0 in the German Cup final. Back in November, however, Bayern was in eighth place in the Bundesliga, on the brink of being knocked out of the Champions League. Van Gaal sensed then that his time was short.

"If I don't produce, I will be fired," the 58-year-old Bayern coach said at the time.

The Dutchman won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, so both he and Mourinho are out to join Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970 and Hamburg 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (Borussia Dortmund 1997 and Bayern 2001) as winners with two different clubs.