'I Do Feel Very Relaxed. It's Not My First Final'

His demeanor was of a man arriving for a family barbecue rather than a manager on the brink of his single most important match this century. "I love you all," he cried out, his eyes sparkling, and spreading out his arms in the manner of the Pope. "I have come to spread peace."

It was not the way a manager would usually address an audience of journalists, television crews, photographers and blazer-wearing Uefa officials. Yet this was Sir Alex Ferguson at his gregarious best: warm, charming, convivial and incredibly relaxed given all that was at stake. "I feel good," he volunteered when he was asked to describe his state of mind. And then he started to twitch his arm exaggeratedly. "Apart from the shakes, of course ..."

If Ferguson wanted to project the image of a man in control of his surroundings, he can congratulate himself. It made for an impressive performance in the bowels of the Luzhniki Stadium. "I must say that I do feel very relaxed," said Ferguson. "But I should be. It's not my first final, you know. I've been here before with United, and I've been in cup finals with Aberdeen, too. So the one person who shouldn't be nervous is myself."

He would use his experience and "hopefully my composure", he said, to keep his players calm. He was asked whether it gave him an advantage over the "novice" Avram Grant. "I don't think so," Ferguson replied, recalling his first final, as Aberdeen's manager, in the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup. "I remember going against [Alfredo] Di Stéfano and I didn't shrivel. I just handed him a bottle of whisky. It's an opportunity - a chance."

What Ferguson did not say was that the gift of whisky was a premeditated piece of gamesmanship on the advice of Jock Stein, the then Scotland manager. "Let him feel important," Stein had told him, "as if you are thrilled to be in the final and only there to make up the numbers."

It is doubtful Ferguson will come armed with gifts for Grant. Instead, different tactics will be in play. "Chelsea are physically stronger than most of the other Premier League teams," said Ferguson, who reported sitting through several hours of tapes scrutinizing "the weaknesses" of United's opponents. "They base a lot of their play on that strength. But we don't need to match that. We can concentrate on our movement and passing, our strengths. I think we're good at that.

"We do have to pay attention to the strengths of Chelsea, of [Didier] Drogba, [Michael] Ballack and [Frank] Lampard. Part of our preparation has been about that. But we also have to trust our players. We can't rest on two young lads [Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney] being our saviors. I'll be depending on all 11 players playing at the top level. It's a massive challenge for everybody. But I think I've got the players to do the job and I trust that."