How do you prepare for a cup final of this magnitude?

Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are about to face each other in a £100m sliding-doors Europa League final in Bilbao.

They are currently 16th and 17th in the Premier League, directly above the relegation places. Between them, they have lost an incredible 39 times in the league this season.

But Bilbao brings a shot at redemption.

For Spurs, it would mean a first trophy since the 2008 League Cup. United, meanwhile, are aiming for their first European trophy since their Europa League triumph in 2017. For the fans it is huge.

But for the people running the respective clubs it is bigger. The prize for victory is a place in next season's Champions League. At a conservative estimate, it would generate a £100m increase in revenue.

The pressure at the San Mames stadium will be immense.

How are Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim preparing for it? And what does it feel like to play in a game of this magnitude?

There has been a divergence in approach. For a start, when they played their last match before the final within 45 minutes of each other on Friday, the respective managers opted for very different strategies.

Postecoglou played a completely different team at Aston Villa compared to the one that beat Bodo/Glimt in the second leg of their semi-final. He left key centre-backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero out of the squad entirely.

"I don't understand why they are gripped by fear, both managers will want to go into the cup final with momentum," said ex-Celtic striker Chris Sutton.

"It's just that selection fear where Postecoglou won't play Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven - but will they be undercooked?"

Amorim went strong. Even following the return to training of Diogo Dalot, Joshua Zirkzee and Leny Yoro on Tuesday, other than Mason Mount and speculation around striker Rasmus Hojlund, it felt very much like the team who will start the final.

"I don't know the context of Tottenham. What I know is the last game against Bilbao, we had that game and then we rested some players because we were afraid of some injuries," said Amorim.

"Then we had a full week to prepare for the game and I felt, with five days to the final, the best thing to prepare for the final was to give time to the players - the best way to prepare something is to compete."

Tottenham held a team barbecue at their Hotspur Way training ground at the weekend, which Postecoglou says was player-driven, before arriving in Bilbao on Monday afternoon, taking up residence in a hotel right in the heart of the city.

"It was very important, being together, talking about life," said captain Son Heung-min. "It feels like we are getting even closer."

"This bonding experience is very important," added right-back Pedro Porro. "The team is like our family. It's very good to talk about life with our team-mates, too."

United arrived a day later and opted to stay slightly further away from the stadium - only three miles, so not exactly a long journey.

United also decided against taking up the option of a final training session in the match stadium. Most clubs these days don't train in the matchday venue before European games.

The benefits of this are twofold. Firstly, it is far easier to keep their own training grounds secure and stop the opposition spying on them. Secondly, there is familiarity and ease of access to equipment, such as drones, that are now a vital part of team preparation.

In all likelihood, Tottenham won't do anything of note in their final session at the San Mames stadium. But it will allow them to get the feel of the iconic ground.

United will do a walk round instead. In fairness, it is only three weeks since they beat Athletic Club 3-0 there in the first leg of their semi-final, so the need to get accustomed to their surroundings is not the same.

"As the players we just think about what we have ahead of us, and what we have ahead of us is the chance to get our hands on a trophy," explained United captain Bruno Fernandes.

Team meetings and rest, interspersed with a lunchtime stroll, are the recognised ways of passing the time until it comes to leaving for the stadium on match night, arriving about 90 minutes before kick-off.

It is that point at which key figures in the dressing room step up.

Gary Pallister, a member of the United team which beat Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup final to secure the first - and most pivotal - trophy of Sir Alex Ferguson's Old Trafford career - remembers the influence captain Bryan Robson had in those moments.

"When Robbo was there, we were a different team," said Pallister. "He was injured so often that season. But when he played, you could almost feel it in the dressing room 'Robbo's here, everything will be OK. He will sort it out'.

"We were a team that relied on that. Over time, we had to learn to play without him but at that point, when he was out of the team, I felt we were a bit rudderless.

"He had played in two finals by then, whereas for me, I was going out to play in the biggest match [of the year], the game we grew up with as kids, the most special day of the year.

"I was thinking about my parents in the crowd, your friends and family, the 'Oh my God, I am playing live in front of the whole nation'. That brings its own nervousness.

"But that day at Wembley, Robbo was such a calming influence. He spoke to us and settled us down, on and off the pitch."

Lilian Thuram was a key member of France's 1998 World Cup-winning side, helping the hosts beat Brazil 3-0 in the final in Paris - a game that was preceded by rumours that the visitors' star man Ronaldo would miss out.

"We were all convinced it was a ploy by the Brazilians to make us believe that Ronaldo wouldn't be able to play," said Thuram. "We thought 'no way, Ronaldo is playing the match, they are just making this up to try and fool us'.

"During the match you are so completely focused on the task in hand, you are not really aware whether a player is at their top level or not. You can't worry about whether Ronaldo is off today."

Despite suffering from a convulsion hours before the final. Ronaldo did play, but France overcame their pre-tournament doubters to prevail as world champions for the first time.

"There were an awful lot of top-level players who had played a lot of finals, we knew if you wanted to win you needed to block out the noise and drama around it and prepare for the match that was coming," added Thuram.

"It was a dream match for the players, a dream match for the public, this really focused minds. It was a great occasion, but we had no doubt we were going to win that final."

The prize for Spurs and United, as outlined, is a big one - the difference between success and failure is huge.

"I can't think of one in recent seasons where the extremes are so polar opposite," said Sutton, a Premier League winner with Blackburn.

"That really adds to the occasion and the pressure. I can't remember a game which was so highly pressurised for both teams."

On Saturday, Crystal Palace beat Manchester City to win the FA Cup - it had taken 35 years to get their hands on the trophy after missing out in 1990. For United, it was the start of something big.

Even though their only significant addition in that summer was Denis Irwin, with a teenage Lee Sharpe also starting to emerge, United were a different team from then on.

They finished sixth in the league in 1991 and won the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating a Barcelona side who would go on to win the European Cup the following year.

And after blowing the race for the league title 1992, they finally won it in 1993.

Something unquantifiable happened in 1990 that went far beyond winning a single match.

"Even before the final in 1990, the gaffer used to say 'winning a trophy will give you a kick-start'," said Pallister. "I am guessing that was from his Aberdeen days as they progressed and broke the Old Firm [Celtic and Rangers].

"The FA Cup was massive back then. Winning it gives the dressing room such a boost. It gives you belief you can win. Once you had that, it gave you the momentum to go into the following season.

"From that, we beat Barcelona. It gave us the certainty we could get better and we could push on. That is what we did."

France's World Cup victory in 1998, meanwhile, not only set the platform for European Championship success two years later, but the diverse, multi-cultural Les Bleus squad united a country that was conflicted over issues of immigration and discrimination.

"Those memories will be with me forever," said Thuram. "All of the different people of France who came out to celebrate that team, it is something that keeps me going - that there was a big group of people within the country that believed in that team and what it represented.

"That victory in 1998 helped to give people greater courage and that desire to speak out about equality and injustice, and to demand greater equality."

For Tottenham or Manchester United, a door to creating their own legacy is about to open. No-one can be certain where it will lead.