Top panel: slice at the V = 30 km s^-1 of the cross-correlation data cube showing the simulated planet (R_p = 1.5 R_Earth and T_eq = 300 K) around α Cen A, for a 30 h exposure with METIS at the E-ELT. The planet is visible 0.7 arcsec away from the star at an S/N of 8. Since the cross-correlation technique automatically renormalizes the noise, the star is not visible in this data cube. Bottom panel: same but now multiplied by the local contrast to emulate a conventional HCI image.