AC Milan booked their place in the Champions League final by hanging on for a 1-1 draw with city rivals Inter last night but defiant Inter coach Hector Cuper insisted his players had turned in the better performance.
Andriy Shevchenko's goal in first-half injury-time was levelled by Inter substitute Obafemi Martins with seven minutes remaining but despite a grandstand finish by the Nerazzurri it was AC who progressed on the away goals rule after last week's 0-0 draw in the first leg.
"It was good," Cuper said in remarks on the club website, www.inter.it. "I did not think Milan were better. As far as chances created were concerned, I think we were better than Milan but the ball would not go in.
"I am pleased with my team and with the two chances for Kallon and (Ivan) Cordoba we could have won it."
He played down Hernan Crespo's petulant reaction to substitution by Kallon.
"No player is ever pleased to go off," said Argentine Cuper. "I don't know if he was angry, I will have to ask him. But it seemed a necessary change so I made it."
Inter president Massimo Moratti, who has used 10 coaches in his eight-year reign with Cuper the longest tenant of the vacancy with almost two complete seasons, told journalists: "It's a big disappointment - to go out without losing is very troubling.
"The nature of the performance was not negative but the result was."
Shevchenko's goal earned Milan a final place against either Real Madrid or Juventus, with the Spaniards taking a 2-1 lead to Turin for tonight's second leg of their semi-final.
"It is certainly the most important goal of my career," said the Ukrainian. "Now we have good hopes for the final."
Asked whether he would prefer to face Juventus or Real Madrid in the final at Old Trafford on May 28th he said: "There is no such thing as a weak team in a final."
Italy's prime minister and AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi was first to congratulate his players.
Berlusconi, whose money bank-rolled Milan's glory days in the late 1980s and early 1990s before he concentrated on his political career, was delighted to be back in the final.
"I am breathing fresh air, the air of a final," said Berlusconi, whose side in the 1980s and 1990s added three European titles to the two they had won under previous owners in the 1960s.
The only unhappy note in the Milan camp was struck by coach Carlo Ancelotti, who hit out at speculation that either he or Inter boss Hector Cuper would be sacked if they lost.
"I am really pleased to get in the final but I am also angry," said Ancelotti, a playing member of two of Milan's victorious teams under Berlusconi.
"On the day before the game it was a massacre between me and Cuper over who would be for the high jump if there was a defeat," said Ancelotti to Stream TV.
"Perhaps there will be never again a Milan derby in the semi-final of the Champions League: we should have given another image.
"It is time for football, and especially Italian football, to change course."