UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL COUNTDOWN:THOUGH THE teams were only due to arrive in the city last night and fans were still distinctly thin on the ground, you couldn't travel far in Moscow yesterday without a sighting of a Chelsea or Manchester United player.

On roadside billboards all across Russia's sprawling capital, four of Chelsea's more illustrious stars stare purposefully off into space while a fifth, Andriy Shevchenko, appears to be making "come and get me" eyes at any passing oligarchs.

The windows of countless sports shops around the city centre, meanwhile, are adorned by poster-size head shots of Ronaldo in which the United winger has what can only be described as, quite a gob on him.

Maybe today the locals will start to notice because with two days still to go before the Champions League decider they were still a little preoccupied by the success of the country's ice hockey team at the World Championship in Canada, where Russia edged out the hosts 5-4 in the final.

Because of the time difference, the news arrived late in the city but some celebrating fans still ventured out on Sunday night to drive through the city centre with flags flying from their car windows and it was the big news on local television yesterday.

In the city centre there were a few hundred at any time attending the fan festival in Red Square.

Worried, perhaps, after last season's FA Cup final between these two clubs that tomorrow's game might not produce too much, the centre-piece of the day's activities was what appeared to be a highly organised bout of "spontaneous football" but to judge by the long queue, the opportunity to have a picture taken with the trophy Chelsea and Manchester United will be trying to win here was the most popular attraction for the locals.

While the square has been given over to football fans, the city's gay community has again been bemoaning the fact they are made to feel less than welcome around the place.

Back in 2006 an attempt to hold a gay pride march just around the corner descended into something of a farce when the event was banned and large numbers of police were sent out to prevent the ban being defied.

The organisers had invited observers from across Europe to take part and in an attempt to salvage something decided to lay flowers at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the other side of the Kremlin on the basis that the fight against fascism had ended with a victory over a ruthlessly homophobic regime.

The authorities were having none of it, though, and amid the confusion, Pravda reported dryly at the time, "a mob shouted and cursed the sodomites".

An attempt last year to defy a similar ban ended with violent attacks on those who tried to march and things do not look any more promising this year, with Mayor Yury Luzhkov refusing permission for the event and one of his officials was reported in the Moscow Times as observing that the attempts by the organisers to obtain permission from new president Dmitry Medvedev to use federal land within the city were, "not worth a damn".

It's presumably not quite the image the local authorities were aiming to project when they were stumping up the €200 million or so that was spent on the Luzhniki stadium in order to win it the Uefa five-star status required to stage a Champions League final.

The Soviet-era exterior of the 52-year-old venue, which hosted the track and field events for the 1980 Olympics, looks decidedly dated while its setting - a huge sports complex surrounded by parkland on the banks of the river Moskva - would probably give Michael McDowell palpitations but cause Bertie Ahern a sigh of regret for what might have been.

Inside, though, it is hugely impressive, and as hundreds of workers bustled about yesterday there was a strong sense of excitement about the place being filled to its 87,745 capacity tomorrow evening.

Of course, that's considerably more people than there are hotel beds in the city and with Uefa having tied up most of the better ones for guests and sponsors early on, there is a terrible shortage for supporters with the result that the prices achieved for the next two nights were pitched between astronomical and stratospheric.

It's a problem those obliged to visit Dublin will have to face if the FAI get their way and the newly-rebuilt Lansdowne Road is awarded the Uefa Cup over the next few years.

The Irish capital has 22,000 approved hotel beds compared to Moscow's estimated 35,000 and around 2,000 more are expected to be on stream by the association's original target date for hosting the final of 2011, but the supporters of two foreign teams would still face a shortage.

The problems here explain why so many fans have sought to keep their visit as short as possible, with many due to leave immediately after the game so as to avoid the need for accommodation.

Critics have questioned Uefa's decision to bring the final here and the fallout may impact on a Dublin bid which initially failed to win sufficient support because of the relatively short space of time Lansdowne Road would have been opened by the time the game would be staged here.

The reality, indeed, may be that our infrastructure is not good enough yet to host a European final but at least in Ireland things have moved on to the extent that citizens are allowed to walk the street with pride.