Special effect: The Champions League final boasts two of the game's greatest coaches, but who will prevail?

Van Gaal was on his feet, pointing at his players, screwing up his reddened face in anger while Mourinho, his young assistant, sat expressionless behind him. Mourinho looked cool, but detached, looked like a rookie who knew his place. Years later, when the Portuguese came out of his shell and laid siege to the European game, Van Gaal was asked about his former acolyte. "I remember him when he was humble," said the Dutchman, with a smile.

Of course, Van Gaal's old mentor at Ajax, Leo Beenhakker, could say something similar about his own ex-pupil, because if we're talking about humility here, nobody ever accused Van Gaal of being especially meek when it came to championing his own greatness. And greatness is the word. It applies to the pair of them. When they meet in Madrid on Saturday for the Champions League final it will be the coming together of two of the most outrageously successful coaches the game has ever known.

Consider this: When Van Gaal's Bayern Munich clinched the Bundesliga a week ago it was the seventh domestic championship the manager had won – and in the third different country having previously conquered Holland with Ajax and Spain with Barcelona. Last night, they played in the cup final against Borussia Dortmund. Van Gaal is the first manager in the history of the game in Germany to have won the league and made it to the two marquee finals. The fact that he has done it at the first attempt is all the more remarkable

Mourinho, of course, can stand toe-to-toe with anybody when it comes to outrageous achievement. Tonight, if Inter beat relegated Siena, it will be the sixth time in seven years that Mourinho has won a domestic league. Think about that. Six championships in seven attempts. The guy has only been a fully-fledged manager for nine seasons. And like Van Gaal, he, too, has won his leagues in three countries – Portugal, England and Italy.

The legend grows with each passing season. Mourinho has guided Inter to their first European Cup final since Johan Cruyff's Ajax did for them in 1972 and he's chasing a treble that not even the godfather of the Nerazzurri, Helenio Herrera, could pull off in his prime in the 1960s. The Coppa Italia is already in the bag and, barring a freak, the Serie A title should follow. Should Mourinho overcome Van Gaal in Madrid it will bring an end to Inter's 35-year wait to be re-crowned champions of Europe and, quite frankly, if he does it, there can be no pantheon big enough anywhere in Italy to do him justice. In his own mind, at any rate.

Antagonistic, narcissistic and enigmatic, the chances are that Mourinho will soon do to Inter what he did to Porto when he brought them the Champions League six years ago – he will resign. He said on Wednesday that he didn't want to comment on Real Madrid's reported interest in him becoming their manager next season, said he had enough on his plate thinking about all these trophies he might be winning, all this glory he could bring to Inter. Then the following day he changed his tune. Coaching in Spain was very definitely on the agenda, he admitted. It was an ambition, a part of his relentless desire to own the football world by winning championships in every country worth bothering about.

"It's true I will coach Real Madrid," he said. "I've coached a big club in England, I'm coaching a big club in Italy and I will coach one in Spain."

As a disciple of Van Gaal (and the late Sir Bobby Robson), Mourinho is similar to him in certain ways. Both have a nomadic tendency, both have made their mark outside their homeland, both have a Champions League win to their name and both have a superb record in finals and an unshakeable belief in their own eminence.

Earlier this season, the critics, headed by the one true God of Bayern, Franz Beckenbauer, started to get on Van Gaal's case after a series of dodgy results, but the manager dismissed them with the contempt of a guy who knew he was on the right track. Mourinho has been getting it, too. Not from within his club, but from pretty much everywhere else. Much of the abuse he brings on himself. He basks in it, as if he needs the flak in order to fuel his self-righteousness.

Similarities, then, in their mental toughness and tactical genius. But also vast differences. It would be too simplistic to say that Van Gaal has been committed to attacking football his whole managerial life while an obsession with defence has characterised the Mourinho years, but there is truth in it all the same. In his six seasons with Ajax, Van Gaal's team were top of the goal-scoring charts in five of them while rarely occupying the same lofty position in terms of goals conceded. It was the same when he went to Barcelona for this three-year stint and the same again in his two unsuccessful years with Holland.

Van Gaal's side managed to score 30 goals in qualification for the 2002 World Cup but too many given away at the other end meant they only managed to finish third in their pool behind Portugal and the Republic of Ireland. In all of Europe, only the Portuguese scored more times than Van Gaal's Holland in that campaign.

The commitment to goals continued in his four seasons at AZ and now it is there in force again at Bayern. Not counting last night's cup final, the Germans have played 51 competitive games this season and they've only been held goalless on five occasions. No side has shut them out, in any competition, since November. While Inter were progressing clinically and professionally through the last 16 (a 3-1 aggregate win over Chelsea) and quarter-final (2-0 over CSKA Moscow), Bayern were getting themselves involved in epic arm-wrestles with Fiorentina and Manchester United, both ties being won on away goals after they ended 4-4 over two legs.

Bayern have scored 21 goals in this season's Champions League and have conceded 13. Inter have scored 15 and conceded eight. Therein lies the difference in philosophies. Every single Mourinho team – be it Porto, Chelsea or Inter – has won titles while conceding fewer goals than everybody else, sometimes considerably fewer. They've played 54 games this season and have kept 24 clean sheets, a tribute to a doughty defence and a midfield that contains the organisational brilliance of Thiago Motta. Alas, for Mourinho, Thiago is suspended. The consolation comes with the knowledge that so, too, is Bayern's Franck Ribery.

"Jose trains to win," said Van Gaal a week ago. "So do I, but I also choose to express good football. My way is more difficult." It's certainly braver and more flamboyant. Even without Ribery, there is the devil of Arjen Robben down the right and the consistent goal-scoring of Ivica Olic and Thomas Muller upfront. These boys – and their support cast – have scored in 46 games out of 51 this season, so Mourinho has got his hands full in the absence of Thiago.

But, of course, we said that as well at the Nou Camp and he found the answers. Even with ten men. Inter can lay claim to having the best defence in world football. Maicon, Lucio, Walter Samuel and Javier Zanetti have been around since Methuselah's time, Maicon being the youngest at 28, Zanetti the oldest at 36 and the other two in the middle at 32. They are the wisest old dogs in Europe.

If Mourinho cut his team some slack they are capable of untold damage. Any side that has Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto'o and Diego Milito, second-highest goal-scorer in Italy, in its ranks carries with it an immense threat. We won't see much of that, of course. Mourinho likes to keep a rein on it. That's his way. It's not going to endear him to the masses outside of the blue zones of Milan, but that's no concern of his. Never has been. Entertainment is not something he has ever promised us. He's got a familiar and formidable adversary to face on Saturday, but as good as Van Gaal and Bayern are, it's hard to escape the feeling that Mourinho is going to win this, that despite Bayern's flair, defence will be king.

If Mourinho is triumphant, we're going to have to recast him somewhat. Two Champions Leagues, two Premierships, two Serie As (probably), a UEFA Cup, an FA Cup, a Coppa Italia and a handful of other trophies in three countries all by the age of 47. Special One? For once in his life, Mourinho may have understated it.

• Bayern Munich v Internazionale

Saturday, 7.45pm BST Santiago Bernabu Stadium, Madrid ITV 1 and Sky Sports 1

KEY CLASH

Arjen Robben v Cristian Chivu

Robben has been the creative fulcrum for Bayern this season. An outstanding winger who is equally at home playing just behind the front two, the former Chelsea man combines searing pace with great skill and an eye for goal. The Dutchman's outstanding strike at Old Trafford ended Manchester United's Champions League hopes in the quarter-finals. The task of shackling Robben will likely fall to Chivu, Inter's Romanian international. A defensive midfielder or left-back, Chivu is a crafty operator who'll need all his wits about him to curb the speedy winger.

PAST TRIUMPHS

Bayern

1974: The first of a famous European Cup hat-trick came when they defeated Atletico Madrid 4-0 in a replayed final in Brussels with Uli Hoeness and Gerd Muller each scoring twice.

1975: The trophy was retained in Paris with a controversial 2-0 win over Leeds United. Bayern were the beneficiaries of some contentious decisions and the Leeds fans rioted. The goals came from Muller and Franz Roth.

1976: Franz Beckenbauer led Bayern to three in a row with a 1-0 win over St Etienne at Hampden, Roth scoring the winner.

2001: Two years after losing the Champions League final to Manchester United Bayern bounced back with a penalty shoot-out win over Valencia following a 1-1 draw.

Inter

1964: Helenio Herrera's Inter defeated the Real Madrid of Di Stefano, Puskas and Gento 3-1 to lift the European Cup for the first time. Sandro Mazzola (2) and Aurelio Milani scored.

1965: Inter retained the trophy the following season with a 1-0 win over Benfica in Milan, Jair da Costa scoring. The win was a triumph for Herrera, the architect of catenaccio.