Champions League: Morning Roundup

By: Martha | May 23rd, 2007

Rain! In Athens! Hurrah! First and most importantly, let it be know that, among all of today’s Final participants, Jamie Carragher is the only one with the legal right to “drive a herd of sheep through the streets of Bootle.” (And no, that’s not a Google translate sentence.) Craig Bellamy may do so on a regular basis, but when he does so, he’s risking dire legal consequences. Right. Moving on.

Great news, Milan fans: It’s raining in Athens! Given the deluge during which the Rossoneri dismantled Man U, the rain can’t be anything less than a lucky charm for the Italian side. Right? Good. The team, however, are not out in the weather. Instead, they’re hanging about in the hotel, eating (at 10am, for those of you tracking these thing), stretching (at 11am), walking (alone) and doing their damnedest to avoid talking to Herr Berlusconi, who is officially In The Building. After lunch, Gattuso (and only Gattuso) planned to take a nap, while it was “music or playstation for the others.” (In case you were wondering if there’s such thing as too much information when it comes to the Champions League Final, the answer is obviously no.)

Away from the team hotel, there are the usual ticket problems, with both groups of supporters bitching about the small number distributed to each club while the touts roll in the dough, sometimes charging upwards of €4000 for a single ticket. And, since there are about a billion Liverpool supporters in Athens (most of whom seem to have placed bets on Milan before they left home), only a few with tickets, they’re resorting to beating the crap out of one another in an effort to gain admission to the ground. (So far, it’s not working.) Milan supporters, meanwhile, arrived late due to airline strikes, but they’re surely just as annoyed as everyone else about the fact that UEFA gave so many tickets to ~~sponsors~~ what they’re calling “the UEFA family.” In order to pass the time before the planes took off, a few enterprising Rossoneri fans took it upon themselves to extract tickets from the club through threats. Shockingly, it didn’t work.

Less than four hours to go. Do you have any nails left?