David Beckham slipped and missed a key penalty for England against Portugal at Euro 2004 and now John Terry’s loss of footing has handed the Champions League to Manchester United.

Is it nerves or a lack of technique? Vlog on the pitch regulars Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley are joined by Pedro Redig to discuss Wednesday’s final, with some fan reactions also included.

Jon thinks Chelsea deserved to win and Pedro wonders if Andriy Shevchenko should have played. Let us know your views.

Submit your comments in the usual way below or if you are feeling adventurous, load a video response to youtube or wherever tagged “vlog on the pitch” and if we like it, we’ll load it up here.

The museum at Vienna's Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint Stephen has a new exhibition meant to show what it says soccer owes to religion. As my colleague Alexandra Hudson writes from the Austrian capital:

Players such as Argentina's Diego Maradona are venerated as saints of the modern age, the exhibition explains, and fans frequently set up shrines or collect "relics" of their favourite teams or players.

"There are many parallels between the cult of football and the rituals of the Christian Church," said museum director Bernhard Böhler.

An "I belong to Jesus" shirt worn by an AC Milan player and Maradona's famous "hand of God" goal are cited to show the links between faith and football. The exhibition, entitled Heroes, Saints and Heaven Stormers, runs from May 21 to September 22.

Do you think soccer owes as much to religion as the museum director says?

P.S. Readers of this blog may recall Bernhard Böhler from an earlier and far more controversial exhibition, the show of artist Alfred Hrdlicka's work that included a painting depicting the Last Supper as a gay orgy (we blogged on it here and here and here). That got him into hot water, with protests pouring in from Austria, Germany and the United States. It wouldn't have surprised me to hear he had been fired, but this soccer story suggests he's weathered the storm.  

A little after half past one on a rainy night in Moscow, Edwin van der Sar leapt to his right to save the 14th penalty of a nerve-shredding shoot-out and clinch victory for Manchester United in the Champions League final against Chelsea.

The Dutchman’s save spared Cristiano Ronaldo, who had earlier missed a penalty, what would surely have been the worst night of his sporting life and won the European Cup for United for the third time.

While United were celebrating, it was heartbreaking for Chelsea, and particularly for John Terry, who slipped just as he was taking the penalty that could have given his side victory.

More from Moscow later, but for now let us know your thoughts. Did the best team win? Or after hitting the post and the bar can Chelsea feel they just endured rotten luck? And what was Ronaldo thinking of with that penalty… Let us know in the comments. 

PHOTO: Manchester United’s Edwin Van der Sar holds the trophy as his team mates celebrate after winning their UEFA Champions League final soccer match against Chelsea at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow May 22, 2008. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Moscow might have developed into a shiny new example of capitalist consumerism but the 50,000 English fans arriving on Wednesday for the Champions League final were given a flashback to how the city looked under the greyest days of Communism.

Four hours before kickoff in European soccer’s most important game, soldiers and police outnumbered fans by about 300 to one and not a metre of the route from the Sportivnaya Metro station to the Luzhniki Stadium was unguarded.

The few fans who wandered into the areas surrounding the stadium were dwarfed by the immense military presence - around 15,000 are on duty - as bank upon bank of troops and police stood in line, staring blankly through the cold evening drizzle.

With no alcohol on sale and precious little else on offer in terms of entertainment, most of the fans already here seem to have opted to stay in the city centre before making their way out for the 10.45 local time kickoff.

Thousands more were being bussed straight from the airport, and will go straight back there in the early hours, their entire Russian experience being restricted to what they could see along the roadside through their windows.

A handful of souvenir stalls were offering the usual array of military fur hats and Russian dolls for prices that would have bought a holiday apartment on the Black Sea 20 years ago but there were few takers, hardly surprising in the wake of the outrageous flight and hotel costs the fans had been forced to bear in this most ill -thought out UEFA experiment.

With the leaden skies and constant drizzle further dampening the atmosphere it all added up to a very flat build up for a game that should never have been here in the first place.

Mitch Phillips, Moscow

PHOTO: Matryoshka dolls with portraits of Manchester United players are displayed for sale at Red Square in Moscow, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

The speculation in Spanish newspapers in the build-up to the Champions League final is all about Cristiano Ronaldo and the chances of him signing for Real Madrid next season (see Marca, for example).

The feeling in Madrid seems to be that if United beat Chelsea here in Moscow tonight, the ludicrously talented Portugal winger could leave Old Trafford thinking something along the lines of “My work is done here…”

Now, as far as I know Ronaldo has never said anything of the kind, while United are adamant that they will not even consider negotiating with any club, whatever the result in the first all-English Champions League final.

It’s the sort of speculation that really annoys Alex Ferguson and the only time he (briefly) lost his air of benevolence at Tuesday’s pre-match news conference was when a journalist asked him about Ronaldo’s future.

“Are you an idiot?” Ferguson responded. “I thought they were just in England…”

United would obviously be a weakened team without Ronaldo and there’s no real incentive to sell — except the money, which would presumably be not far short of the 100 million euros mark.

I don’t believe United will even consider it, but maybe it would be worth looking at what is happening at Barcelona before they rule it out completely.

If Barcelona had sold Ronaldinho after the Champions League final in 2006 they would have been able to name just about any price they liked, and certainly a world record fee, for the Brazilian. As it is, they have seen how their main asset’s form has declined over the past two seasons, and he is likely to leave for a more reasonable amount (15 million euros is the figure I’ve read).

I imagine United fans will think it’s an absurd idea, but there’s something to be said for selling at the peak of the market. If he does as well as most people expect him to tonight, that could be a lot of money…

What do you reckon?

Kevin Fylan, Moscow

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United leaves the hotel in central Moscow for a training session, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

South America’s Libertadores Cup has reached the quarter-finals and, for those lucky enough to see it (it’s sadly shunned by most tv networks outside the region), offers a refreshing change to the predictability of its richer European counterpart.  

Only three of the eight teams reached this stage last year, there are no clear favourites for the title and all four ties remain wide open after last week’s first legs.  

Titleholders Boca Juniors face a tough battle after being held 2-2 at home by Mexico’s Atlas but are far from dead and buried, especially if the mercurial Juan Roman Riquelme can hit form. They were in a similar situation last year after drawing at home with Libertad in the first leg, but hit back for a 2-0 win in Asuncion.  

Boca’s fellow Argentines San Lorenzo also drew at home last week, 1-1 against Ecuadorean champions LDU, but have already shown they are the last team you would want to write off.  

In the group stage, Ramon Diaz’s team somehow came from 2-0 behind to beat Real Potosi 3-2 away — at nearly 4,000 metres above sea level — and in the last sixteen they fought back from 2-0 behind with nine men against River Plate to draw 2-2 and win 4-3 on aggregate.  

LDU, on the other hand, remain a good bet to take the trophy to Ecuador for the first time.  

Sao Paulo, where Adriano is enjoying a revival after being loaned from Inter Milan, take a slender 1-0 lead to Fluminense in the all-Brazilian tie while Santos, Pele’s former club, are still confident they can overcome a 2-0 deficit against America, the other Mexican side.  

America have already pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset, winning 3-0 away to Flamengo in the last round after losing 4-2 in the first leg, and their Paraguayan striker Salvador Cabanas, ridiculed by the Brazilian media as “fat”, is joint top scorer with eight goals.  

Although it is ignored elsewhere and despite the continued exodus of top players, the Libertadores is flourishing.  

There were full houses for all four ties last week with 90,000 watching America at the Azteca stadium.  

And, whoever eventually reaches the final, their supporters won’t be forced to travel thousands of kilometres to watch as the tie is played over two legs.

Brian Homewood, Rio

I was standing by the side of the M1 in front of my broken-down Morris 1100 on a hot afternoon in May 1972 with only one thought in my mind. And it wasn’t how to get my car fixed.

It was how was I going to get to Molineux, still 75 miles away, for the first leg of the UEFA Cup final between Wolves and Spurs.

Luckily my companion knew a lot more about cars than I did and after a nervous wait, we were on our way again to an historic first — the first European club cup final between two English teams.

For in all the hype surrounding this week’s all-English Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea, that first all-English European final has largely been over-looked.

That is no real surprise in today’s world of mega-Champions League hype, but what IS more of a surprise is that there has been no all-English final in any other European club competition since then.

Eventually we made it to Molineux in good time for the first leg of the very first UEFA Cup final which Spurs went on to win 3-2 on aggregate.

Martin Chivers was the hero at Molineux, scoring both goals in Tottenham’s 2-1 win, including a memorable 30-metre thump that almost broke the back of the Wolves net.

Alan Mullery was the Spurs hero in the second leg, knocking himself out as he scored the goal that secured the cup with a 1-1 draw in his final match for the club.

Both Wolves and Spurs occupy a special place in the annals of European club soccer and in a sense the wheel has turned full circle from Molineux to Moscow this week.

In the mid-1950s Wolves were declared “Champions of the World” by the English media after victories over top European sides in floodlit friendlies which included a 4-0 win over Spartak Moscow in November 1954.

That was the catalyst Gabriel Hanot, the editor of L’Equipe, needed to finally act on an idea that had been building for some time: to create a continental cup to find the real champions of Europe. The European Cup was born.

Wolves never won the European Cup and neither did Spurs, but Spurs did become the first English team to win a European trophy when they beat Atletico Madrid 5-1 in the European Cup Winners Cup final in 1963.

English clubs, along with those from Spain, Italy and Germany have gone on to dominate European club soccer over the last four decades and now England have shared the third same-country final following Spain in 2000 and Italy in 2003.

One thing’s for sure though. If you’d have broken down in your Austin 1100 on the M1 on the way to see Chelsea v Manchester United, I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t have made it to Moscow in time for the kickoff this week.

Mike Collett, Moscow

PHOTO: A worker adjusts an outsized Champions League football in front of the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow, May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski

Sonia Oxley blogged here last week on whether we might see a repeat of the violence which marred the UEFA Cup final last week at the Champions League final in Moscow.

UEFA officials say they don’t expect any trouble, and certainly no retaliatory attacks on Manchester United or Chelsea fans but last week’s rioting on the streets of Manchester and stabbing of a Russian fan raises wider questions about who is to blame, and whether violence can ever be completely kicked out of soccer.

UEFA says it can’t solve the problems without the help of the police and local authorities. The clubs say they cannot be held accountable for the behaviour of all their fans. Politicians say it is a deeper sociological problem. But still the violence goes on.

After AC Milan’s victory over Liverpool in Athens, European soccer’s governing body has stepped up its security measures, notably introducing new modern turnstiles, specialised staff training and more cooperation with local police.

But the common denominator between Athens and Manchester was ticketing. UEFA says it has done just about everything to curb forged tickets or to stop tickets getting into the wrong hands.

But officials say, if the violence continues, they may be forced to introduce biometric entry via fingerprint or eye scan in the future. Has soccer really come to this?

PHOTO: Russian interior servicemen sit in trucks with a soccer poster in the background as they get ready to provide security measures in central Moscow, May 20, 2008.  REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

This time last year I blogged from the Champions League final in Athens, mainly about the oddly circuitous routes taken by Liverpool fans just to get there.

My plan was to do the same from Moscow, but so far fans are pretty thin on the ground. With hotel prices starting at about 800 euros a night, it seems the vast majority of fans are going to come in on the day and fly back pretty much as soon as the game is finished.

At Red Square this morning there was a longish queue to get up close and personal with the trophy itself (or perhaps a replica, who knows…) but so far there’s none of the loud and beery atmosphere of Istanbul or Athens. Even the GUM department store on Red Square was empty, with the Manchester United shirts on sale at 3,150 roubles a pop not finding any buyers.

One story doing the rounds here is that the stadium might not even be full for the final. As a Russian friend put it: “Why would we want to go out to watch a match between two English teams at midnight?”

I did get one offer of a ticket from a Russian guy on the street. He quoted me a 1,000 euros, but his heart wasn’t really in it.

I’m sure it’ll all get livelier tonight and I’ll update here with stories from fans as soon as I can find some. In the mean time, send us your thoughts on the final…

Kevin Fylan, Moscow 

Vlog on the pitch duo Jon Bramley and Darcy Lambton think Manchester United will beat Chelsea on Wednesday but host Owen Wyatt is not so sure. (Although judging by the haircut he has already lost a bet this week.)

Who is your money on for the big clash in Moscow? Will Didier Drogba ignore the mind games and win the game just like the semi-final against Liverpool?

The boys touch on various other topics in a bumper issue this week. They review the FA Cup final before discussing Real Zaragoza’s relegation and the English playoffs.

Let us know your thoughts. Leave comments below or make your own video, load it up to youtube or wherever tagged “vlog on the pitch” and if we like it, we’ll put it up here.