Over the years, Athens has been the scene of a fair few decent contests. There's been two modern and several ancient Olympics, a cultural Pan-Athenaia or two and the small matter of the Peloponnesian war. There's been famines and plagues and invasions aplenty, from the Persians to the Romans to the air-brushed abs of those Manpower blokes pretending to be Spartans in 300.
Fast-forward some 2000 years and the intricate alleys and sweeping boulevards of the Greek capital have been overwhelmed by Liverpool and AC Milan supporters desperately scouring the streets for tickets to one of the most highly anticipated contests this year: the sequel to 2005's classic Champions League Final.
In many ways Liverpool versus AC Milan is the unexpected final. When the UEFA Champions League season started back in October, Barcelona, the stallion of European football, looked destined to take all before it, while the only likely challengers to a repeat dose of Catalan glory seemed to spring from the underachieving Chelsea or possibly from Gerard Houlier's in-form Lyon outfit.
Liverpool, on the other hand, was barely mentioned. After winning the 2005 trophy, Rafael Benitez's side had crashed out of the 2005-06 competition during the group stages, with many believing it to do the same this time around. AC Milan, on the other hand, was expected to put up a decent showing, but no one really knew how Carlo Ancelotti's side would react to the match-fixing scandal that engulfed Italian football at the end of last season.
Fast-forward seven months later and both sides have come through adversity to justify their place in Europe's most prestigious final. Liverpool has put early season selection dramas behind it to be, once again, one of the most consistent performers in English football, while Kaka and Clarence Seedorf have inspired AC Milan's superb post-Christmas run of form.
But who's going to win?
All the talk has revolved around AC Milan avenging that night in Istanbul two years ago, when Liverpool did the unthinkable and came from three goals down at half-time to defeat the Rossoneri on penalties. But, surely, any team that goes into a match purely focused on revenge cannot have its mind on the game in hand?
Instead, Ancelotti will have instructed his side to build on the form it showed in defeating Manchester United in the semi-final. Kaka and Seedorf will again play in a Christmas-tree like formation behind a lone striker while Rino Gattuso and Massimo Ambrosini will be one step behind producing attacks and generally harrying Liverpool's forwards. With veterans in skipper Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta leading the defence, the only question relating to Milan's line-up will revolve around the identity of the lone-striker. The options are either Pippo Inzaghi or Alberto Gilardino, with both players having strengths and weaknesses. Gilardino is the more proficient at holding up the ball and supplying passes to either Seedorf or Kaka as they come forward, while Inzaghi's dangerous running could see AC Milan take advantage of Andrea Pirlo's precision passing to sneak an early goal. My tip is that Ancelotti will stick with his semi-final starter in Inzaghi, for an early goal will still be valuable although Ancelotti will be acutely aware of what happened in 2005.
However, for all Milan's quality, Liverpool looks the stronger side. The Reds defence is substantially more solid than in 2005, with Jamie Carragher and Danish revelation Daniel Agger leading the way in front of a sometimes suspect goalkeeper in Jose Reina. Reina may have lapses in concentration during general play, but, if it comes down to penalties, his proficiency in this area is undoubted. Ahead of the defence, John Arne Riise will probably sweep forward along the left, while Socceroo Harry Kewell could come on in Riise's place later in the fixture. In the centre, the Reds have Spanish playmaker Xabi Alonso and on the right, talismanic skipper Steven Gerrard whose willingness to win for Liverpool could be the greatest asset Rafael Benitez has. In 2005, it was Gerrard leading Liverpool's revival against AC Milan, while the skipper was at it again during last season's FA Cup final when his thunderous equalising goal helped set up a Reds' victory through penalties.
Adding to the combative threat of Gerrard is Liverpool's array of forwards, with Benitez able to start Dirk Kuyt alongside Craig Bellamy or even rattle Milan's defence through Peter Crouch's aerial threat.
Indeed, Liverpool seems to have the arsenal at its disposal to win this match, but its third placing in the Premiership and the fact that it was three goals and two goals down against Milan and West Ham in respective Champions League and FA Cup finals demonstrates that it can be exposed by early forward thrusts. With Kaka and Seedorf in the sort of form they are in, Milan is more than capable of providing those goals as it showed against Manchester United. But Liverpool's fighting spirit may just see them win this trophy once again in a result that it almost too tight to call.