Carlo Ancelotti has been talking in depth about this weekend's opponents and his previous encounters with their manager, Alex Ferguson.

The Italian has crossed swords in a football sense with the Scot as Juventus and AC Milan manager. Now he has been giving his fully attention once more to how the beat the side from Old Trafford.

To that end, Ancelotti believes Man United's most recent defeat, at Anfield last month, is one his team must study going into Sunday's clash.

'I think that Liverpool did a fantastic match, a strong match, and put a lot of pressure on the pitch,' Ancelotti analyses

'They won because of this, because they didn't give the possibility to Manchester United to play like they want to play.

'This is a good lesson for us. Manchester can suffer the pressure on their midfielders.

'But I don't work to play against a weakness [in the opposition],' he continues. 'We want to play to put on the pitch our quality.'

In other words, don't expect a Chelsea approach noticeably different to the one that has earned so many good results this season.

'The best thing to play against Man United is to maintain balance because they have a good defence and fantastic strikers,' the Chelsea manager says.

'For me [Wayne] Rooney is one of the most intelligent strikers in the world and it is very dangerous to play against him. Without [injured] Rio Ferdinand they lose something but also [Jonny] Evans and [John] O'Shea are very good centre-backs.'

Ferguson got the better of Ancelotti in their first contest, the famous Champions League semi-final of 1999. In the first leg, Juventus were denied a win at Old Trafford by a last-minute goal. Then 2-0 up in Turin, they allowed the eventual tournament winners that season to comeback and win 3-2.

With Milan, Ancelotti had far more success. While Chelsea were enjoying our epic duel with Barcelona in 2005, his side were winning 1-0 in Manchester and then by the same score in the San Siro, Hernán Crespo, on-loan from Chelsea, netting both times.

In 2007, on the way to winning the European Cup themselves, Milan lost the away leg 3-2 but triumphed 3-0 at home.

'There was a particular atmosphere created after the first match,' recalls Ancelotti, 'because we lost in the first leg in the last minute and that goal forced my team to play attack from the start in the second leg. At the same time Man United thought to defend and after 30 minutes, we were leading 2-0.'

It was during that first Man United v Juve tie that Ancelotti encountered the famous Fergie post-match invitation.

'He offered me a glass of wine and normally in Italy after the match you are a little bit anxious. I appreciated this. They had drawn with us in the last minute and I was a little bit angry and after the red wine it is better!

'I gave him a bottle of my wine, a Brunello, after Milan against Manchester United.

'Now in my office I have red wine and beer. Whatever he wants, I can do. I think he prefers red wine, me also. To maintain a good relationship with the other coaches is a good thing. In Italy we are not used to this.'


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