The Spanish champion is seeking its record 14th European title and Liverpool its seventh. But the kickoff was delayed to allow a bottleneck of fans outside to clear.
Liverpool Manager Jürgen Klopp said it himself this week: If the Real Madrid of the last two minutes against Manchester City, the last 10 against Chelsea and the final half-hour against Paris St-Germain was Liverpool’s opponent in the Champions League final, there would be no point even staging the game. Just give Real Madrid the trophy and save everyone the bother.
It is worth pointing out that the Stade de France is, like Wembley, a new stadium, and that therefore the issues outside should not be happening.
The Stade de France, in a suburb outside Paris, was built for the 1998 World Cup and has hosted several big games since then, including the 2016 European Championship final. Fans have, though, previously complained about trouble gaining entry into the facility. The problems evoke memories of the chaotic scenes outside London’s Wembley Stadium ahead of last year’s European Championship final. That day, thousands of ticketless fans pushed their way inside, leading to dangerous conditions.
This delay seems like the most sensible thing to do. There are far too many people outside trying to get in, and the entry system has clearly failed.
This is the in stadium message to fans regarding the delay. Strangely in Spanish, the message relates over the public address system blamed the delay on « security problems » pic.twitter.com/W9DSC4MSHy
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) May 28, 2022