Jose Mourinho received a warm welcome at the San Siro before his Roma side were beaten by Serie A leaders Inter Milan.
The Special One led the Nerazzurri for two years before leaving in 2010.
Mourinho led the Italian side to a landmark treble, winning the Champions League at the Bernabeu to etch his name into the club's history.
However, he returned as Roma boss and saw his team dumped out in the Coppa Italia at the quarter-final stage.
Inter took the lead through Edin Dzeko within two minutes before Alexis Sanchez doubled their lead in the second-half.
Sanchez was signed by Mourinho back in his Manchester United days in a mega money deal that proved to be a huge failure.
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The Special One, whose side sit seventh in Serie A, hailed the reception he received at the San Siro and also praised his team's efforts.
He said: "They are two completely different aspects that can co-exist together.
"The way I was welcomed here, the way Mr Zhang {the Inter president], Mr Marotta [the former Inter president] and Javier [Zanetti] welcomed me and the beautiful gift they gave me before the game … that’s the emotional side of it, which I can only thank them for and I could never hide away from.
"The relationship I have with Inter and its people is eternal, that cannot be denied.
"But I’ve came here tonight to win, I’m here for my Roma and my people now are the Roma fans.
"We were not able to win the game. We shouldn’t forget the first five minutes but, if I could somehow block those five minutes from my mind, I would say that Roma played really well against a side that it is not easy to play well against."
Mourinho highlighted Sanchez's strike just after the hour as a crucial moment in the match.
The Portuguese coach felt that the referee began changing his attitude after Roma had gone two goals behind.
He claimed: "The second goal clearly changed the game, and I think it changed for the referee too.
"Tactically he was very good: he refereed the game one way until it got to 2-0 and then he started to referee it another way.
"Referees can be good with the tactics too and I think he was very clever tonight."
Sanchez is attempting to reignite his career back in Italy and is confident more minutes will see him get closer to his best.
“I always want to play, I’ve always said the more I play, the better I feel," he said.
"I want to do what is best for the team, but the fact remains it’s difficult to play only 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there.”
