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Both these sides have three European Cup/Champions League titles to their name.

Both these sides have already lifted the famous trophy at this week's venue, Wembley Stadium.

Both these sides are chasing the superior European records of bitter domestic rivals.

All similarities between Barcelona and Manchester United going into this week's Champions League decider in London. However, there will be one major difference come the final whistle on Saturday night. One of these sides will have won... the other will have lost.

Now if we're to believe the market, it will be Barca 1.54 who come out on top, just as they did in their last meeting - the 2009 final. They are clear favourites to beat United once again with the English side dismissed by punters and pundits alike, trading at 2.84.

And this might be right. But it's our job as form students to look a little deeper than this in order to determine the best plays for a match which is, without doubt, different from all the rest.

This is the 19th Champions League final since the old European Cup was modified in 1992-93 and Spain (5) head the list of winning nations (along with Italy) followed by England (3) and then Germany (2) with France, Portugal and Holland (1) also providing past champions.

The 18 previous finals have produced 45 goals (2.36 goals/game) which immediately prompts comparison to Rome two years ago which Barca won convincingly 2-0. This also could explain why under 2.5 goals 1.7 is being preffered on the exchange. However, these are two of the most attack-minded teams in the competition and the over/under 2.5 goals make-up since 1993 is actually bang on the even money mark (9/18).

It's also 50/50 in terms of both sides scoring, or not as the case might be. United, the prolific Ronaldo included, failed to find the net two years ago and that too could explain why it's 1.89 that at least one side fails to score on Saturday. Again not great value given the overall data covering the previous 18 tournament deciders.

We've seen just five drawn finals in this period - famously the last one involved United in 2008 when they went on to beat Chelsea on penalties. That would make the 90 minute draw at 3.6 right on the borderline of value. Interesting to note here that all five drawn matches have resulted in a shootout (none of the five even produced a goal in extra-time).

There are sure to be plenty of takers in the correct score market and here it's worth pointing out the most common FT result has been 2-1 (4) followed by 1-0 and 1-1 (3). There has been only one 0-0 draw - the all-Italian affair between Milan/Juventus 2003).

As for the halftime score, it's been 1-0 at the interval in no fewer than nine of the 18 finals and since the Champions League came into existence only 28% (5/18) of the deciders have been draws at the interval. In other words, we should expect one side or another to be ahead at Wembley after the first 45 minutes.

And, leading on from this statistic, there have been 9/18 HT/FT doubles since 1993 (including three in the last four years). Hence you could 'dutch' this market, covering both teams, and create a decent odds-against bet in what has traditionally been a 50/50 market over the years.

That last market provides a good example of any number of ways in which the available data can be adapted to find a good value bet on this match. A match, which according to the researched information, should see a relatively early first goal, a half-time lead for that same side (quite possibly leading to a full-time win) and a margin of victory by one or two goals.

Key question, as highlighted earlier, is which side those scenarios will apply to Barcelona or Manchester United?

Led by (a) the market (b) past head-to-head form, most notably that 2009 final (c) squad strength, depth and ability (d) recent form and (e) general European experience and pedigree... it's Pep Guardiola's men who look most likely to strike again and scupper United's attempt to win this re-match.

Key Statistic
For what you might think are tense, cagey affairs ... 15/18 finals have seen first half goals and six have produced goals inside the first 20 minutes.

Recommended Bets
Over 2.5 goals 2.4
Barcelona HT/FT 3.7

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