A VERY SPECIAL ENCOUNTER

At the M&T Bank Stadium Milan and Chelsea missed each other by a few minutes. The English left the stadium at 19.22, while Milan arrived at around 20.00. First, Carlo Ancelotti's press conference.

BALTIMORE - Tonight the Italian journalists present at the press conference of Chelsea and their coach Carlo Ancelotti felt strong emotions. The coach who led the Via Turati club for 8 years wore the English side's outfit and it had a strange effect. The conference started with a few answers in Italian. Time seemed to have stopped, but the topics immediately made it clear that wasn't the case: "Everything is going well, I am satisfied of the team and I notice they are following me with attention. There's great availability. Milan? I have not seen them yet, but I'm in contact with Leonardo who tells me things aren't going badly. Tomorrow we'll see. I know I have a very good team, which is already well-oiled and is composed of great champions."

The coach was then asked about the "hot" topic of Andrea Pirlo's future, and earned a few laughs from the journalists because of his ironic answer: "What I know is that Andrea will play with Milan's shirt tomorrow... no one knows the future. We'll see."

Ancelotti was also asked about more general topics, like Inter's transfer campaign and the attitude of Mourinho after the match against his Chelsea team, who won: "I think the Ibra-Eto'o swap is a particular thing. I don't know who will be advantaged, but I think that being two great players they generate a lot of discussion, because they are two champions. I don't want to touch the second topic, because I'm not interested if Mourinho said it was just a training match for them. I know we had to try certain things and that these things worked. I don't need to add anything else."

The conference ended more or less like this, but soon after that Abramovich's team left the stadium. When they did it was 19.22 and Milan would have arrived soon after. A postponed meeting? No, although yes... but only by a few hours, because after signing some autographs in the stadium, also Milan leave to reach their hotel and after a few minutes Shevchenko and Ancelotti appear. They did not stay for long, but they cared about this meeting more than about tomorrow's match.
Many embraces and demonstrations of reciprocal affection... perhaps also a bit of emotion...
Certainly a very special meeting.