Not since the World Cup final of 1966 has there been such a focus on a game of football involving an English team.

(Well, that's what Manchester United and Chelsea fans are saying anyway. Others are not so ecstatic. "I hope they both lose," one Liverpool fan was over heard to hear in Belfast yesterday).

Both clubs have played each other hundreds of times, but, even so, tonight's game is loaded with significance beyond the usual trial of strength and endurance in a football stadium.

For the clubs, for the players, for the fans — as for UK football in general — much is at stake.

The English game will be showcased to the world, given the chance to sparkle in the kind of forum where the national squad usually disappoints.

Each player and manager will act out his own personal script. Will Ronaldo prove that he is the best player in the world? Will Avram Grant's fate be sealed at Chelsea if they lose?

And will the supporters prove to the world that the old image of English fans as drunken hooligans is merely a malign stereotype?

There is everything to play for ... let the show begin.