New England Patriots 0-3 New York Giants

3rd & 2:Maroney finds the gap. First down.

2nd & 10: Maroney carries for eight yards.

1st & 10 at the NE44: What a horrible first play. A faked-reverse, but Brady is under the cosh and just gets the ball away in time.

Kick-off: Maroney takes it back 43 yards. Brady is going to start with very useful field position.

Field-goal attempt: And our man, Lawrence Tynes, puts the Giants 3-0 up.

3rd & 10: Manning completes to Smith, but only for a couple of yards. Bah! That would have been the start the game needed.

2nd & 10: Jacobs runs it outside, but goes nowhere.

1st & 10 at the NE18: Manning looks for Burress in the end zone, but the corner back Hobbs gets his fingertips to it. Nearly an interception there.

3rd & 7: Another blitz, and Manning is under a touch of pressure but he coolly finds Smith for the first down.

2nd & 10: New England blitz, but Jacobs is on the run again and collects three.

1st & 10 at the NE29: Incomplete - Manning to Boss.

3rd & inches: Bradshaw again, and another first down.

2nd & 3: A first carry for Ahmad Bradshaw, and he scurries for two.

1st & 10 at the NE47: That was a pretty breathless opening, and two third-down conversions for Manning. A solid start for young Eli. Jacobs goes on another battering-ram run and picks up seven.

3rd & 6: Manning in the shotgun, his line give him plenty of time and he finds Steve Smith. First down.

2nd & 7: Jacobs gets the carry and makes another yard.

1st and 10 at the NY42: Quick pass outside for three yards.

3rd & 6: Loose snap, but Manning finds Burress, in open field. First down.

2nd & 7: Jacobs again. Makes a yard.

1st & 10: Jacobs runs it for three yards, burrowing through the middle.

Kick-off: Giants receive but make it only to their own 22.

National Anthem dept. Jordin Sparks - "last year's American Idol winner" apparently - gives it the full welly for the Star Spangled Banner, a song that always gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention. Politics aside, I love it...

The Giants stride out to the strains of Kanye West's Daft-Punk-sample-heavy hit Stronger, while Tedy Bruschi and Tom Brady lead the Patriots out to a tune I'm afraid I don't recognize. "Wow - I've been fortunate to get to some pretty major sporting events in my time, but the buzz when the teams came out was still quite something," enthuses Our Paolo.

The players are in the tunnel and we're 15 minutes away from kick-off.

"Beer prices are scandalous" reports our man at the scene, Mr Bandini. "$10 for a 'domestic lager' or $15 for a 'Premium lager'. Which appears to be Bud Light. Not that I'm indulging, of course... up here in the press box they've given us iced tea and a lunch box."

Preamble: Good evening folks and welcome to play-by-play coverage of one of the year's great sporting events - the Super Bowl.

And this year has an extra edge - we could very well see history in the making. The Patriots are undefeated and a victory tonight would make them only the second team in NFL history to record a perfect season. The 1972 Miami Dolphins managed it, but they played fewer games, so if New England lift the trophy they'd have a very decent case for claiming to be the best NFL team ever. Bar none.

Bill Belichick's side are in their fourth Super Bowl in seven years, and they won the previous three. The last time the Giants reached this stage was way back in 2001, when they got hammered 34-7 by Baltimore in what was far from a classic. Let's hope for a better showing from the underdogs this time around.

The Giants, though, have had a great post-season. They won away in Tampa, away in Dallas, and away in Green Bay to get here, while New England have been good - but not that good. Tom Brady was out-passed by Jacksonville's David Garrard and San Diego's Phillip Rivers in the Divisional and Conference games, though that might just give a clue to their all-round strength - running-back Laurence Maroney had cracking statistics in those matches, showing the Pats aren't over-reliant on Brady's arm.

GU's own Paolo Bandini is out in Phoenix, and will be blogging after the match. He's also going to be weighing in with his observations - and here's his first:

"For me it's a no-brainer: Patriots to win, and probably win easy. The Giants caught them off guard in Week 17 [when the Pats won a thriller 38-35] - they came out throwing, and found big plays when they needed them to stay on the front foot for much of the first three quarters.

"In that time, almost everything went right: they scored on the first drive, Eli Manning played one of the best games of his career and Domenik Hixon took a kick-off back for a touchdown. They still didn't win. This time the Pats are better prepared, healthier (they were missing two of five starting offensive-linemen last time) and better focused. Belichick teams are always ready to play on Super Bowl Sunday.

"I"m going to say the Patriots get ahead early and never look back. Full-time: Pats 34-17 Giants, and even then only with the Giants scoring a late TD to make things look more respectable than they were."

It's hardly going out on a limb - the Pats are 5-1 on with the bookies - but I'm using my amazing insight to tip a New England win, too. I reckon it'll be a bit closer than Bandini thinks, though. If Manning has a stunner and if Plaxico Burress can back up his fighting talk (and if he's fit) the Giants might even be up at half-time - when we'll be "entertained" by Tom Petty and the Heart breakers - but the Pats will probably run away with it in the third and fourth quarters.