Guardiola played in two Champions League finals as a Barcelona player, winning the first at Wembley against Sampdoria in 1992 and losing the second to AC Milan in Athens two years later.

The former Barca captain is now enjoying incredible success in his first season as coach, having already led the Catalans to a league and cup double in Spain.

Barcelona are now only 90 minutes away from achieving a historic treble of Primera Division, Copa del Rey and Champions League titles in the same season, something that has never been achieved before.

And Guardiola joked that, if they do so, he should retire.

"If we win, I'll go home and finish my career, it will have been a big, big success," he said today.

But the Barca coach is thrilled to be sharing European football's biggest stage with Ferguson and is hoping to learn from the Manchester United manager.

"I have a lot of respect for him, I'm so proud for us to be here and come up against his team," Guardiola continued.

"His career is amazing - he has won trophies and had to build a new team, and then won again and again.

"I will try to learn from him - it's a proud moment for me to be there playing against him and a huge team like Manchester United."

Barcelona went out to United at the semi-final stage of the Champions League last season, when Frank Rijkaard was in charge of the Catalan outfit.

And Guardiola revealed he has studied both the goalless draw at the Nou Camp and United's 1-0 win at Old Trafford.

"Those were the first two games we looked at, to have an idea of how they went," he said.

"But we have looked at others, including the semi-final against Arsenal."

Barcelona have a depleted squad for Wednesday's final and are sweating on the fitness of Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta.

Henry has been sidelined with a ligament problem he picked up in the 6-2 win at Real Madrid earlier this month, while Iniesta injured his thigh in the 3-3 draw with Villarreal two weeks ago.

Both are fighting to be available for the final but Guardiola is unsure whether they will be ready in time.

"I don't have a lot of options; I don't even have a lot of options for the league game against Osasuna on Saturday," he added.

"I don't know if Andres and Titi (Henry) will make it in time - we'll see on Monday or Tuesday.

"They have faith and the will to be there but it depends on their muscles as well."

But Guardiola is confident of winning the game, regardless of who is available.

"If they are not fit, somebody else will have a chance," he said.

"There is nothing we can do about it - Dani (Alves), (Eric) Abidal and Rafa (Marquez) are all out, so we're short of players.

"I would love to have them available, but they are not, so we'll try to go out and win the game with what we've got."

One player definitely available is Lionel Messi, and Guardiola believes his winger is better than United star Cristiano Ronaldo.

"They are two great players but I'll stick with my player - I think he's the best," he said.

Messi, meanwhile, was keen to play down comparisons between himself and Ronaldo.

"I don't know who is best, that depends on which team wins... but both of us will be fighting to make sure our team wins," he said.

The Argentina winger was full of praise for his Portuguese counterpart, though.

"Everybody knows Cristiano, he is a great player who can change a game in an instant," he added.

Messi was part of the Barcelona squad that won the Champions League in 2006 but the winger missed the final against Arsenal through injury and is desperate to be involved this time.

"I wasn't able to get on the pitch and enjoy the final in Paris but I have the opportunity now and it is something I'm very excited about - it's the biggest game of my life," he said.

And Guardiola agreed.

"I'm a bit older than Leo," he joked.

"But I'll agree that it's the most important game in my life and definitely my biggest game as a coach."