Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson admits Wednesday's Champions League final against Chelsea is the "biggest game of all".

Ferguson said: "For me, this Final is the biggest game of them all in the biggest tournament there is. The Champions League elevates your status as a team, as an individual footballer and as a manager.

"The opportunity is there for us to improve our standing in a competition in which we should have done much better.

"We should have won the European Cup more times. We lost to Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen in semi-finals - and on both occasions I thought we should have been European champions.

"This is our opportunity to catch up with some of the other great teams around Europe.

Real Madrid are out there with nine victories. We won't catch them in my lifetime, or AC Milan, but clubs like Liverpool, Ajax and Bayern Munich can be caught by Manchester United.

"It is now down to the players to grasp this chance."

Ferguson added: "This game has come at the right time for this team. We deserve to be here. Our performances have been really good and we are now prepared for anything."