The all-German Champions League final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich on Saturday marks the culmination of an intensifying and increasingly bitter rivalry.
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In one corner stand Bayern; German football royalty, and the Bundesliga's dominant force of the last 40 years.
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In the other corner stand Dortmund, who have captured neutral hearts with their humble, wise- cracking coach, Jurgen Klopp, and a team committed to smothering their opponents with breathless attacking football.
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Dortmund upset the balance of power in Germany by winning back-to-back Bundesliga titles in 2011 and 2012 – a run that included five straight wins over Bayern – only for the Bavarians to storm back and win the league in record-breaking style this season.
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Although they finished a huge 25 points behind Bayern in the Bundesliga, Dortmund have demonstrated their pedigree in the Champions League, topping a group that contained Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax, and then routing Madrid again for good measure in the semifinals.
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But while the final at Wembley should represent a tussle for total supremacy in German football, Bayern's recent acquisition of Dortmund's star playmaker Mario Goetze suggests the odds remain stacked in their favour.
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As well as triggering the 37 million euros (£31.7 million, $47.8 million) release clause in Goetze's contract, Bayern are also expected to win the race to sign Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski, who scored all four goals in his side's astonishing 4-1 blitz of Madrid in the semifinals.
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Klopp said the news of Goetze's imminent departure hit him "like a heart attack", but he takes solace in his club's more organic approach to transfer dealings.
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"What can I say? If that's what Bayern wants... It's like James Bond –except they are the other guy (the villain)," he said in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian this week.
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"We are not a supermarket, but they want our players because they know we cannot pay them the same money. It could not be our way to do things like Real and Bayern and not think about taxes – and let the next generation pick up our problems."
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Klopp has also accused Bayern of aping Dortmund's high-octane 'gegenpressing' tactics, having likened the four-time European champions to a Chinese industrialist shamelessly copying the techniques of his rivals.
Borrussia Dortmund all the way! Bayern Munich is not just lucky with UCL finals....Too bad for them.