Welcome to our LIVE coverage of the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United at Wembley!

Interesting question from @romshah: "What would be your ideal dream team comprised of these two clubs?" Mine is Van der Sar, Dani Alves, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra; Mascherano, Xavi, Iniesta; Messi, Villa, Rooney. Biggest question mark is the holding midfielder, as Guardiola obviously prefers Busquets to Mascherano. A fit Fletcher, maybe. What do you think?

One man who won't be with us for the duration is @jcraigynwa, who tweets: "no way alex sick of listening to it and another 8 hours might just put me over the edge" - might that have anything to do with the Liverpool crest on your Twitter avatar? Not even the possibility of a Schadenfreude-enhancing Barca romp enough to keep you?

Our roving reporter Tony Mabert has just ambled out of Wembley Park tube station - he tweets: "Going down Wembley Way. Sponsors have taken over, as you'd expect. Not nearly nauseating as FIFA World Cup fan zones though." That man has a tough life, you know.

Good afternoon! Welcome to our live coverage of the Champions League final build-up. My name's Alex Chick and I'll be glued to my keyboard until the final whistle. We're entering hour three of this afternoon's live extravaganza - get involved by Tweeting me, or join the trolls on the comments board below.

There is a game on at Old Trafford as we speak - the League Two play-off final between Stevenage and Torquay - and there's been a goal!

Tonight's teams: The consensus seems to be that Eric Abidal will not be risked - that means Carles Puyol shifting to left-back and tiny Javier Mascherano coming into the centre. As for United, their XI looks pretty well set - the only bone of contention is O'Shea or Fabio at right-back. I think it will be Fabio - our data provider disagrees (see graphic below).

On the subject of this being the 'most-anticipated final ever', Eurosport-Yahoo!s Mark Patterson comments: "I distinctly remember Manchester United and Barcelona being about to meet in the 2009 #championsleaguefinal and thinking 'meh'."

A word on the man in the middle tonight - Hungary's Viktor Kassai. United always win when he refs. Which is, admittedly, based on a sample size of three games.

@crispybanksy: "i'm hoping park and fletcher will throttle barca's supply and leave rooney to mopup and utilise hernandez' pace-pace is the key" - not sure Fletcher will start, but Park needs to help crowd the midfield. No point trying to outpass Barca so United probably best off denying them space and attacking with pace.

k writes: "lionel messi can be stopped and rendered ineffective in­ today‘s match. see what happened to him at the 2010­ world cup. he scored no goal in the tournament. he was­ effectively played-out of the game." Hmm, I don't think the World Cup is an apt comparison, as that Argentina side was a bit chaotic. It's true he doesn't play well in every game, but 50 goals a season suggests he gets it right more often than not.

On Twitter, @wadiaskovn asks: 'ur predictions alex?' Thought you'd never ask. Barcelona are clearly the better team, and while that does not guarantee success I don't really see how you could predict anything but a Barca win. 2-1. All United can do is play very well and hope Barca have an off-day. If that happens? Well, who knows?

United face an uphill task against a top class Barcelona side, but here are some pointers

Here is the mighty Early Doors's take on proceedings:

Big Champions League occasions always seem to find Sir Alex Ferguson at his most misty-eyed. In yesterday's press conference, he predicted

Well, that first hour of live coverage just flew by, didn't it? Your contributions will help the afternoon go by even quicker - leave your comment at the bottom of the page or Tweet me:

This match is, according to Sky Sports News, 'the most eagerly-awaited Champions League final ever'. How exactly do you quantify that? Meanwhile, we are hearing that United's Paul Smith-designed suits look 'very smart'. Well, that's a relief.

Our sources at Wembley tell us the going rate for a black market ticket has risen to a preposterous £8,000. Yikes.

We toddled along to the LMA Awards on Monday and asked a load of managers for their thoughts on the game - get your Roy Hodgson, Harry Redknapp, Mick McCarthy, Graham Taylor, Paul Lambert and Sir Trevor Brooking right this wey:

On the comments board, Mike is a confident Red: "Vidic is going to score. Twice. Hernandez will score in the first 5 minutes. Alves gets booked for diving. Stuntmen in Hollywood would have a hard time­ replicating Alves' acrobatic dives." Great side as they are, Barca aren't slow to hit the deck...

Jim White dropped another fine blog yesterday, illustrating how well-prepared United are. They have been setting up the subs to play like Barca in training, with Nani as Messi and Owen as Villa. What about Bebe and Obertan as Xavi and Iniesta, though?

Here is a photo gallery of Barcelona fans riding lions in Trafalgar Square, people on the hunt for tickets and the like.