Preoccupied by the right versus left, Berlusconi versus Rutelli debate that has dominated this Italian general election campaign, few commentators stopped to spare a thought for the dilemma yesterday's vote must have represented for AC Milan football club fans, who just happen to live in the "Milan 1" lower House constituency.
Underlining the symbiotic links between Italian football and Italian public life, the electoral contest in this city-centre constituency pitted the centre-right opposition leader and AC Milan owner, Mr Silvio Belusconi, against the centre-left junior Minister of Defence, Mr Gianni Rivera, once known as the "golden boy" of Italian soccer.
While Mr Berlusconi was likely to endear himself to the AC Milan voters through his role in having developed the club into the best in the world for a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mr Rivera may well have won the votes of an older generation, which recalled his outstanding career of the 1960s and early 1970s, when he was not only Italy's most famous footballer but also an AC Milan icon.
The Berlusconi-Rivera clash was just one of a number of intriguing "head-to-heads", new to an Italian political landscape that is still coming to terms with single-seat constituencies. Other intriguing clashes included that between former prime minister Massimo D'Alema of Democratic Left and Forza Italia's Alfredo Mantovano, in the Gallipoli constituency in Puglia, a clash made all the more interesting by Mr D'Alema's refusal to accept the "safety net" of inclusion on the proportional list.
Other single-seat contests that will be closely assessed include the clash between centre-left leader Mr Francesco Rutelli and Mr Elio Vito of the centre-right House of Liberties coalition, in the Roma-Prenestino constituency, in the city that Mr Rutelli has governed as mayor since 1993.
Another mayor turned national politician is the heir to the Illy Cafe fortunes, Mr Riccardo Illy, who finds himself clashing with art critic and Berlusconi supporter Mr Vittorio Sgarbi, in the Trieste-Muggia seat, again in the city which Mr Illy has governed since 1993.
Radical party leader and former European Commissioner Ms Emma Bonino clashed with Forza Italia deputy and close associate of Mr Berlusconi, Mr Marcello Dell'Utri, a man currently being investigated for alleged collusion with the mafia.
International media eyes will doubtless take a good look at the result in the Roma 1 senate constituency, where former Economist correspondent and current centre-left senator, Ms Tana De Zulueta, attempted to hold on to the seat she won at the 1996 election.
Leaving aside the intriguing contests within the contest, however, when analysts sit down to assess yesterday's vote, one of the biggest questions asked will concern just how much a personality-dominated campaign obscured basic "lire in the pocket" issues.
Was the centre-left's electorate more concerned about the so-called moral question regarding Mr Berlusconi than about the fact that the taxpayers' burden was greatly increased during five years of centre-left government? Is the centre-left voter convinced that the fiscal austerity necessary for Italy to make the euro was worth it?
Did not Mr Berlusconi adopt a winning tactic when he signed his famous "contract with Italians" on live TV, making the promise of an ease in the tax burden (middle-class Italians pay an average 40 per cent in income tax) the first of his electoral pledges?
For the answers, over to the Italian electorate . . .