Some of the world's greatest ever football players descended on Milan on Monday night to help bring Italian legend Andrea Pirlo's footballing career to a close with a star-studded testimonial match.
The Italian World Cup winner retired from football after the season with New York City in the MLS and called upon past and present team-mates, opponents and friends to end his career in style.
Pirlo played for both AC Milan and Inter during his illustrious playing career and opted to play his final career game at the clubs' San Siro home.
A team wearing white, which included the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Leonardo Bonucci, Dida, Rui Costa, Francesco Totti and Christian Vieri shared a pulsating 7-7 draw with the side in blue, which featured Cafu, Andriy Shevchenko, Carlos Tevez, Clarence Seedorf and Gianluigi Buffon among others.
The Blue Stars were ahead inside the first minute after a delightful cross from Serginho was poorly cleared. It fell to deadly Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko and he slotted home.
A very late flag from the assistant referee stopped the Blue Stars from making it 2-0 just moments later with Fabio Quagliarella stood offside as he headed in.
Managerial stars Roberto Baggio, Roberto Donadoni, Antonio Conte, Massimiliano Allegri and Carlo Ancelotti all looked slightly perplexed about the lack of defending in the early stages.
Quagliarella, still playing in Serie A with Sampdoria, broke the offside trap after six minutes and lofted a delicate finish over the helpless Dida in goal for 2-0.
Alexandre Pato pulled one goal back for the Whites after 13 minutes. The youthful Brazilian beat veteran defender Marco Materazzi with ease and drilled the ball into the far corner.
On the half-hour mark Antonio Cassano restored the Blue's two-goal lead. A close range attempt from Massimo Ambrosini was only parried by Dida and Cassano was there to tap it in.
The deficit was halved once again when Pirlo disguised a free-kick and found an unmarked Christian Vieri, who cooly slotted home from close range. Never overly concerned with their defensive duties, the White Stars fell 4-2 behind moments later after legendary full-back Cafu finished sublimely from distance.
Pato notched his second of the game from close range after good work from Del Piero down the left to make it 4-3 before Clarence Seedorf produced an emphatic leap across AC Milan defender Leonardo Bonucci to restore the two-goal advantage at half-time.
A whole host of substitutions brought fresh life to the early stages of the second-half with Gennaro Gattuso, the current AC Milan boss, stepping into the fray. Pirlo also swapped sides and donned blue in the second 45 minutes and it was his team that added to their advantage with a goal from Cristian Brocchi.
Another goal for the Blue Stars arrived on 70 minutes with towering forward Luca Toni glancing a header into the far corner. Filippo Inzaghi was especially lively in the second-half and he was rewarded with the 11th goal of the game with a drilled finish inside the near post.
The gap was closed once again to 7-5 with 13 minutes to play with a tidy finish from Alessandro Matri before Inzaghi brought them to within one with a diving header moments later.
With seven minutes left on the clock Inzaghi sealed his hat-trick by rounding Gianluigi Buffon, who had just come on, and finishing well from a tight angle to snatch a draw.
Pirlo's night came to a close with around five minutes left to play after he was replaced by his young son Nicolo in an emotional and fitting farewell under the lights of his old stomping ground.