It wasn't just the two teams paying close attention to this match.
The media was also highly focused on Atlético Madrid's trip to the San Siro to challenge AC Milan.
Before the team flew to Milan, Shane appeared in an interview on Madrid Sports TV.
As Atlético Madrid's core player, he stood by the training ground and accepted questions from reporters.
When asked about the match against AC Milan, this was what Shane said:
"Drawing AC Milan is not bad luck for us. Our objective is very clear. No matter who the opponent is, we are going to reach the quarterfinals."
The confidence in Shane's words reassured Atlético's supporters.
After all, AC Milan's name still carried enormous weight.
This was a European giant, a club spoken of in the same breath as Real Madrid when it came to Champions League prestige.
So once Shane made that statement, the small trace of anxiety in the hearts of Atlético fans mostly disappeared.
But what had originally been just a local Madrid news item
somehow ended up on Italian television after being edited and translated by Milan-based media.
On screen, Shane's words were cut down to one line:
"No matter who the opponent is, we are going to reach the quarterfinals."
That comment was clearly presented as a provocation aimed at AC Milan.
Although Shane hadn't played Italian clubs very often, Italian fans certainly remembered him.
Because just the previous summer, Spain and Italy had met both in the group stage and in the final of the European Championship.
Shane's performances had shattered Italy's dream of winning the tournament.
And unless something unexpected happened,
as long as he remained a fixture for Spain over the next decade or more, Italy would keep having headaches every time they had to figure out how to stop a midfielder who seemed to have almost no weaknesses.
Now Atlético had drawn Milan in the Champions League knockout round.
The Milan media struck first in the war of words.
And the Spanish media gladly joined in.
The media on both sides traded barbs back and forth.
They were having a wonderful time with it.
After all, for the media,
the more heated the story became, the more traffic they got, and the more money they made.
As for Shane himself,
he gave no further response to the media drama.
He was too busy.
He had no time for a shouting match.
When Atlético's players came out of the airport,
they saw a large number of AC Milan supporters waiting outside.
Obviously,
they were not there to welcome Atlético Madrid.
After all the hype from the Milan media,
Shane had been painted as someone who disrespected AC Milan and looked down on the club.
This was how Milan media described him:
"...Atlético Madrid's midfield core Shane said in an interview that, given AC Milan's current squad and form, Atlético would win easily!"
That was pure fabrication.
Because Shane had never said anything like that.
It was entirely a product of media over-interpretation and outright invention.
But fans did not care about that.
What they saw in those reports
was "Shane disrespecting AC Milan."
So they came here
to give him a warning in advance.
They shouted slogans and held up banners.
The messages on the banners varied, but most of them used AC Milan's history and status to mock Atlético Madrid and Shane.
"European Cups: 7-0!"
"San Siro will be your hell!"
"You will never reach AC Milan's achievements!"
Because of security, these fans could not get close to the Atlético players.
But Italian reporters had no such restriction.
The moment the Atlético squad emerged, they swarmed forward.
A forest of microphones was shoved in front of Shane's face.
The Italian journalists all spoke at once, demanding that he talk about how he felt facing AC Milan.
Some of them even repeated the earlier edited quote and asked him about it again.
"I have not underestimated AC Milan, and I will not underestimate any opponent," Shane said, shaking his head. "I know AC Milan is a great club. But we did not come to the San Siro just to sightsee."
His response was calm and measured.
He neither belittled the opponent
nor lowered his own side's posture.
That left the Italian reporters, who had clearly come looking for trouble, with nothing more to say.
Shane shook them off and boarded the team bus.
As the bus drove out of the parking area,
AC Milan fans on both sides of the road raised their middle fingers at them.
Thanks to the efforts of the media on both sides,
the match hadn't even started yet,
but the smell of gunpowder was already in the air.
At the pre-match press conference,
there was none of that hostility between the two managers and captains.
Simeone praised Allegri for achieving "extraordinary success" at AC Milan.
After all, he had helped Milan reclaim the Serie A title last season.
Allegri, for his part, praised Simeone's work at Atlético as "astonishing," saying he had turned Atlético from a mid-table side into one of Europe's genuine top teams.
In short,
if you only looked at what both sides said at the press conference,
you would think this was going to be a friendly.
But once the starting lineups came out,
Simeone immediately realized
this was going to be a very difficult match.
For this game, Allegri abandoned the 4-3-3 system he had consistently used in Serie A.
Instead, he put out a 4-3-1-2 with three holding midfielders.
Muntari, Montolivo, and Flamini all started together.
At the same time, Boateng was deployed as the starting attacking midfielder.
This Boateng was the brother of the German international center-back Boateng.
Usually, the media called him "Big Boateng."
But unlike his younger brother,
despite also holding both Ghanaian and German nationality, Big Boateng had chosen to represent Ghana, the land of his roots.
He was a modern type of attacking midfielder with strong running capacity and strong physical confrontation.
His technique was not especially delicate,
but he could provide far more physical presence in midfield.
In short,
all four of Milan's midfielders
had significant defensive ability.
Ahead of them,
Balotelli's partner was former Barcelona forward Bojan.
From their body types alone,
you could see this was a classic "one big, one small" strike pairing, and both had decent speed.
Clearly,
Allegri's plan could be read directly from the lineup.
Even at home,
he had no intention of pushing up and trying to suffocate Atlético Madrid.
He still wanted stability above all else.
After getting the opponent's starting lineup,
Simeone's expression remained grim.
"Shane, keep this in mind during the match," he said. "Don't get dragged into too much fighting in midfield. Move the ball quickly whenever possible."
The opponent's three holding midfielders
were obviously aimed directly at Shane.
"I understand."
Shane nodded.
It was true.
Even with his current ability,
if he tried to force his way through three holding midfielders by himself, getting dispossessed would still be the likely outcome.
Football had room for heroism.
But more often,
it was still a team sport.
Shane actually thought this made things more interesting.
Simeone, meanwhile, recalled what Shane had said earlier.
Looking at it now,
it was obvious that Allegri also understood exactly where AC Milan's weakness lay against a physically aggressive side like Atlético Madrid.
That was why he had used three holding midfielders.
They were there specifically to deal with Atlético.
Up to this point,
Atlético's tactical model had emphasized pressing in midfield and the attacking third, then quickly striking after winning the ball back.
And those tactical ideas had all been built with Milan's usual Serie A 4-3-3 as the base reference.
But now the opponent had changed shape.
That left Simeone somewhat caught off guard.
Still,
it was too late to make a drastic tactical adjustment on the spot.
Whether he liked it or not,
he had to go ahead with the original plan.
Could he really settle for a dull draw away from home?
Simeone shook his head.
He would rather trust Shane's ability in attack.
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