The zenith of European football competition, this season's Champions League final will be contested by two of the competition's most successful clubs.

Heavyweights Real Madrid clinched an La Decima by in Cardiff last year and Zidane's side are now gunning for an 11th cup win in Kiev.

As Britain's most successful club in this competition, Liverpool boast a fine European pedigree of their own and stand in the way of an unprecedented third successive cup win for Los Blancos.

The showpiece final in Kiev promises much, with the attacking verve and free-scoring instincts of both sides suggesting tis could be a classic encounter.

With that in mind, the Leader's sports writers recall their all-time favourite European Cup finals and explain why they linger long in the memory...

DAN HEALD: Too young to remember Aston Villa's momentous 1-0 triumph against Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, reluctantly I'll have to bypass the 1982 final here.

Manchester United netting twice at the death against Munich in 1999 and Liverpool's 2005 heroics in Istanbul are both standout clashes for obvious reasons.

But for sheer footballing brilliance, I've chosen Barcelona's 3-1 victory over United at Wembley in 2011 as my all-time classic final.

A replay of the 2009 final in Rome, Alex Ferguson's United were looking to atone for that 2-0 defeat against the swaggering brilliance of Pep Guardiola's Barca.

United were run ragged as the Catalan carousel hit its stride and Barca's tiki-taka passing game took hold of the game.

Pedro fired Barca ahead midway through the first half, before Rooney's equaliser gave United hope before the interval.

But the second half belonged to Barca and to the imperious Lionel Messi whose 54th minute effort from 20 yards beat Edwin Van der Sar.

United battled in vain for a foothold in the game before David Villa killed them off by curling a shot into the top corner.

For neutrals this was a masterful display of Barca's class, for United fans it was agony.

CHARLIE CROASDALE: The 1999 final in the Camp Nou will always stand out for me as the best-ever Champions League final.

Aged nine, I’d fallen in love with football at an early age and, in the last real era before watching the great European sides became common-place on Sky and latterly BT Sport, it was a joy to behold European nights on terrestrial TV.

There was still an air of the unknown about the great teams in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, and those Wednesday’s nights on ITV were the only chance most of us had to see the stars of the continent taking on the best of England.

Manchester United’s achievements in winning the Premier League and FA Cup has established them as a great domestic side, but to be classed as true footballing immortals they needed to beat a fantastic Bayern Munich to lift a first European Cup since 1968.

Mario Basler’s early free-kick meant United trailed for 84 minutes heading into injury-time. What followed was quite incredible as Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored twice in 90 of the most amazing seconds many of us will ever witness.

I’m no United fan, but watching that stoppage time back still brings a smile to my face, as memories of being addicted to football from an early age come flooding back.

“Nobody will ever win a European Cup final more dramatically than this,” Clive Tyldesley declared as Solskjær was mobbed in celebration, and he was right, albeit Istanbul 2005 runs it mighty close!

That treble is the stuff of legend and, in my opinion, that feat – with all the playing demands that come with it - will probably never be repeated by an English side again.

TOM NORRIS: I might not have seen them live, but it’s not often as a Nottingham Forest fan that you have fond memories of competitions.

I’m not sure who remembers, but we’ve won it two times. Back-to-back as well, when it was actually harder to win than get knocked out.

John Robertson’s cross for Trevor Francis’ back-post header against Malmo in Munich will live long in the memory, before the left-footed winger scored the only goal of the game against Kevin Keegan’s Hamburg in Madrid a year later with a scuffed right-footed strike. Delicious.

It’s hard to beat those for favourite finals. My dad was there enjoying the good times, while I’ve been treated to Yeovil away.

Of those not featuring the men in garibaldi red, the last full final I watched – Chelsea v Bayern Munich in 2012 - is hard to beat for drama.

After Thomas Muller handed Munich a late lead I got ready to go out, but enter stage left Didier Drogba, who forced extra-time, and ultimately penalties, with a bullet header with two minutes remaining.

Drogba was trusted with dispatching the winning spot-kick and it felt part of his, and Chelsea’s, destiny to win the competition that year. After all Roberto Di Matteo was in chare and Ryan Bertrand started on the left of midfield.

NICK HARRISON: Growing up in the late Seventies, seeing English teams in – and win – the European Cup Final was a common theme.

Liverpool kicked it off with fans’ favourite and Wrexham legend Joey Jones munching Gladbachs in a 3-1 triumph over the Germans in 1977 that has to rank as one of the best finals I’ve seen.

They did again 12months later at Wembley it was was a drab final, lit up only by a bit of magic from Kenny Dalglish.

But he was not flavour of the month with me at the time, having hit a hat-trick to knock Wrexham out of the League Cup quarter-finals at The Racecourse. And I still claim two of the goals were offside.

Brian Clough was possibly more entertaining off the pitch that his Nottingham Forest’s side performances were on it as they were crowned back-to-back European champions in 1979 and 1980.

But after Liverpool had completed a quickfire hat-trick by beating Real Madrid in 1981, it was probably Aston Villa’s win 12 months later over the much-fancied Bayern Munich, that was more of a footballing fairytale.

I actually had the Villa shirt at the time – a bloke was selling Le Coq Sportif football tops in Bangor-on-Dee. I might have had the sweatbands the match-winner Peter Withe used to wear too. The only thing I was missing was the the beard. But I was only 12!

Villa were managed by Tony Barton, who no-one really knew much about, they lost their goalie Jimmy Rimmer in the first 10 minutes but were indebted to rookie sub keeper, Nigel Spink, who made save after save before Withe hit the famous winner for a European Cup triumph that really isn’t given the credit it deserves.

RICHARD WILLIAMS: I have no affiliation with Liverpool whatsoever, but their comeback victory against AC Milan was up there with the best.

The 2005 final will go down in history as Liverpool recovered from a seemingly impossible situation to somehow lift the trophy.

Milan were big favourites for the Istanbul showdown and got off to the perfect start with a first minute strike.

It was one-way traffic in the first half and two more goals surely meant it was game over with Liverpool 3-0 down.

I remember Pool keeper Jerzy Dudek making a superb save at the start of the second half and the only question then was how many Milan would win by.

But three goals in an unbelievable seven minute period, through Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso, meant Liverpool could contemplate an unlikely victory with only an hour gone.

Both teams gave it a go and Dudek, who I had never been a big fan of, made some crucial saves in extra-time to take the game to penalties.

Milan bottled it when the shoot-out got underway and with Liverpool keeping their nerve, Dudek kept out Andrei Shevchenko's penalty and Rafael Benitez's men were champions.

From a neutral's point of view it was a thriller throughout and will take some beating.