Ranieri said "This is very important for me. This is a big game for me, this has been my first time in the Champions League and the first time in the semi-final. It's all new to me even though I have a lot of experience in the Italian, Spanish and English cups."
Claudio also singled out the absence of Damien Duff as a big blow: "Damien is our wizard and without him we must try to do something good. I always pick my team on the night before the match and this will be the same. I always look at the final training session and feel something is right with this player and maybe not quite right with another.
"I am hoping that everyone will be okay but I will see how they are. It is important to score away, we have done it so far and it is important to keep it going. My mentality is always to win everywhere and I am always confident.
"In England all the people say we are favourites, in Portugal all the people say Porto are favourites, in Spain all the people say Deportivo are favourites and it is the same here in France with Monaco. I think the chances are 25% for each team. There are no favourites now because without the true favourites there are four surprise packages and all the teams have a good opportunity."
My team to face Monaco would be:
GK: Marco Ambrosio
RB: Mario Melchiot
CB: Marcel Desailly
CB: John Terry
LB: Wayne Bridge
RM: Scott Parker
CM: Claude Makelele
CM: Frank Lampard
LM: Jesper Gronkjaer
AM: Juan Veron/Joe Cole
FW: Hernan Crespo