AC Milan great Kaka was surprised by Paolo Maldini's sacking this week.

Maldini was dumped as technical director by owner Gerry Cardinale on Monday.

Kaka said, “I'm very sorry.

"I don't know what happened, but Paolo is a talismanic figure and has helped Milan so much."

On the Champions League final tonight, Kaka said: “It's great to play matches like this, unfortunately there's no Milan but Inter represent Italian football and to see the derby in the semi-final was great."