As Bayern Munich returned home to enormous acclaim - where even Germany's Borussia Dortmund-supporting Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, got in on the act - Wednesday's losers were yesterday attempting to come to grips with their second successive Champions League final defeat.
Even before Hector Cuper and his players had left Milan, there were reports that the club's skipper and star player, Gaizka Mendieta, was being lined up by local giants AC who apparently are prepared to pay up to £30 million for his services.
With Cuper having already said that he is leaving (Barcelona and Inter Milan are currently his most widely tipped destinations), and a suitable replacement proving hard to find, club president Pedro Cortes has found himself engaged in a bout of crisis management.
"Mendieta has not signed any deal with any club, it is just a rumour," he said, although conceding that there are problems on the coaching front with Alaves coach Mane having already turned down the job and second choice Javier Irureta (Deportivo La Coruna) showing little or no interest.
The fear is that if the uncertainty at the club isn't resolved by the end of the Spanish season (which has three more weeks to run), a number of key players, including Mendieta, Kily Gonzalez and their highly rated teenager Vicente, may decide to move elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has a number of transfer issues of his own to resolve over the summer, but the 52-year-old coach, who has now won five Budesliga and two Champions League titles with Dortmund and Munich over the past eight years, acted quickly to resolve one player's future.
Owen Hargreaves, the 20year-old, Canadian-born midfielder, who spent much of his life in Britain before moving to Germany five years ago, was immediately offered an improved three-year deal to round off a remarkable few weeks.
After Wednesday's game senior officials at the club queued up to pay tribute to the English under-21 international who played 14 league games this season, but who has come of age with his performances against Real Madrid (replacing Stefan Effenberg) and Valencia (taking over for the injured Jens Jeremies).
After the final Hargreaves was likened to Lazio's Argentinian midfield star Juan Sebastien Veron by Bayern team-mate Samuel Kuffour who remarked: "Let me be honest with you, he is coming up like a Veron. Yes, he's that good."
Hitzfeld has already signed brothers Niko and Robert Kovac from Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen respectively, as well as Stuttgart's Pablo Thiam, for next season but is in danger of losing Kuffour.
The 24 year-old is reported to be a target for a number of Italian clubs while his fellow Bayern full-back Bixente Lizarazu is rumoured to be on the verge of leaving the club. He has talked often this season about seeking new challenges and having fulfilled what he had said was his last outstanding ambition in the game, he is being linked with a summer move to one of a number of clubs, including Manchester United.
