Excited Russians have been taking to the streets to celebrate the trophy's arrival while today's newspapers are filled with reports about the final.

Not football, however, but ice hockey. The Champions League final may be only two days away but Russia has just won the World Championships for the first time in 15 years and that's big news in this ice hockey crazy country.

The national team's thrilling comeback from 4-2 behind to snatch a 5-4 victory last night against host nation Canada is dominating the airwaves and street conversations. Coming so soon after Zenit St Petersburg's triumph in last week's Uefa Cup final, Russian sport is on a roll.

The Champions League has Moscow excited for different reasons. After the humiliations of the post-Soviet economic collapse, the final is a chance to show off the new self-confident Russia built on booming oil and gas revenues. Officials here are determined to ensure that everything runs perfectly for what is Moscow's biggest sporting event since the 1980 Olympics.

Russian football fans are keen followers of the Premier League and thrilled at the prospect of hosting two of England's most famous clubs, the more so since Chelsea has a local connection in owner Roman Abramovich.

A long queue of Russians snaked across Red Square today for the chance to have their photograph taken standing next to the European Cup at a Uefa fans' village set up opposite Lenin's Mausoleum. Others joined in a football match on artificial turf or strolled around exhibition stands featuring the finalists and contest sponsors.

The irony of football's richest competition setting up shop opposite the holy of holies of Soviet communism is not lost on older Russians. But this is the new Russia - brash, confident, keen to compete, desperate to be loved and full of contradictions.

Mostly, though, Muscovites see the Champions League as an opportunity for a giant party combining their passion for football with a chance to meet new people. Young Russians on Red Square today were asking visiting fans to pose for photographs with them and practising their English to wish them luck in the final.

Russians generally admire England and are both excited and daunted by the prospect of up to 50,000 fans from London and Manchester descending on Moscow all at once. We will only know on Thursday, once the final is over, what impression has been left by the largest English invasion of Moscow in modern history.