Monaco coach Didier Deschamps walks by the Champions League trophy at the Arena stadium in Gelsenkirchen on Tuesday, the eve of the final versus Porto. (Reuters)

Porto: Porto and Monaco will receive their reward for astute management and a refreshing lack of respect for the European elite when they line up in the Champions League final in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on Wednesday.

This will be only the fifth European Cup final, and the first since 1991, not to feature a club from one of the big four leagues of Spain, Italy, Germany and England.

A final meeting between two middleweights like Porto, who won the European Cup for the only time in their history in 1987, and Monaco, who will be playing in the final for the first time, would have been almost unthinkable at the start of the season.

Monaco were 80-1 at the start of the group stage, and Porto 40-1, to win the tournament. The two sides have made it on strict merit, however, and have the potential to serve up a far more entertaining final than last year’s dour all-Italian meeting between winners AC Milan and Juventus.

Porto, led by wily coach Jose Mourinho, followed up their Uefa Cup win last season by beating Manchester United in the first knockout round and going on to account for Olympique Lyon and Deportivo Coruna on their way to the final.

Monaco, after claiming an extraordinary 8-3 win over Deportivo in the group phase, continued to play with admirable panache in seeing off Lokomotiv Moscow, Real Madrid and money-bags Chelsea.

Both Mourinho and Monaco’s Didier Deschamps have brought their teams this far while working on a fraction of the budget of Manchester United, Chelsea or Real Madrid and they are rightly proud of what they have achieved.

“I think in finals you don’t have to think about favourites,” Mourinho said as he prepared his side for the game.

“You have to speak about the teams and the wonderful ways we’ve arrived. They did it against Real Madrid and Chelsea, we did it against Real in the group phase and after against Manchester United and Deportivo. We did great things.

“People say that the big teams are not here but they’re not here because we beat them. We deserve to be here.”

There will still be plenty of quality on show on Wednesday.

Fernando Morientes, a Champions League winner with Real Madrid in 1998, 2000 and 2002, will receive valuable support from midfielders Ludovic Giuly and Jerome Rothen, two of the best French players in the league. Porto will look to the inspiration of Brazil-born Portuguese international Deco Souza in midfield, while the fast and skilful Brazilian forwards Derlei Silva and Carlos Alberto have the ability to trouble any defence.

Of the two sides, Monaco have perhaps played the more spectacular football, particularly in the big games against Deportivo, Real and Chelsea, and Deschamps wants his players to play the final in the same spirit.

“It’s not a chess game between two coaches but between two teams who will try to endanger their opponent,” said Deschamps, who won the European Cup as a player with Juventus and Olympique Marseille.

“I feel very happy to be in a Champions League final. The players deserve it because of their performances. I hope they’ll win in the end because they deserve it.”

Porto are attempting to become the first club to win the Uefa Cup and European Cup in successive seasons since Liverpool in 1976 and 1977 and Mourinho is also keen to see his players remain true to their form of the past two years.

“I just want my team to do in the final exactly what we have been doing,” said Mourinho, who has won two league titles in the past two seasons, as well as last year’s Uefa Cup.

With less than three weeks to go before the start of Euro 2004, the Champions League final will match up teams from the tournament’s host nation, Portugal, and the defending champions, France. If Porto emerge triumphant on Wednesday, the celebrations will still be going on when the club hosts the opening match of the Euro 2004 tournament at their Dragao stadium on June 12.

The fitness of striker Morientes is the only lingering concern for Monaco. Morientes has been inspirational in Monaco’s run to the, his nine goals since a loan move from Real Madrid making him the competition’s top-scorer.

Three times a Champions League winner with Real, the Spaniard gave his side a scare when he sprained his right ankle against Stades Rennes ten days ago.

He returned to help Monaco beat Girondins Bordeaux 3-1 in their last league game of the season but was taken off early in the second half, presumably as a precaution. “We’re not going to take it too seriously,” midfielder Ludovic Giuly said before the Monaco squad left for Germany. “We’re going to have some fun together and try to gear up peacefully.”

PROBABLE TEAMS

Porto: Vitor Baia; Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Francisco Costinha, Maniche Ribeiro, Pedro Mendes, Deco Souza, Derlei Silva, Benni McCarthy.

Monaco: Flavio Roma; Hugo Ibarra, Julien Rodriguez, Sebastien Squillaci, Patrice Evra, Gael Givet, Lucas Bernardi, Edouard Cisse, Ludovic Giuly; Fernando Morientes, Jerome Rothen.