A “red wave” will sweep over Paris. For the third time, the Champions League final, which will be held on Saturday May 28 at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, pits Liverpool against Real Madrid, making it the most often disputed poster in history. of the C1 at this stage of the competition. The Liverpool “Reds” won the first edition in 1981 (1-0), already in Paris, at the Parc des Princes, and the Real Madrid by Karim Benzema the second, in 2018 (3-1) in kyiv.
While waiting for the outcome, some are already setting the mood in Paris: Liverpool supporters have the reputation of being among the most loyal and fervent in the world. Tens of thousands of Reds fans are expected in the city, the vast majority of them without tickets. Never mind: when you push the door of this bar in the 17th arrondissement, no doubt, you enter the world of the “Reds”.
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Ritchie and his four friends live in Australia. They have just landed and to recover from the trip, head to this Parisian HQ of supporters of the English club. “There, it’s the calm before the storm. You will see a red invasion all over the city! We flew 17 hours, so imagine all those who are only an hour away!“, he warns with a smile. Yet he is the only one in the group to have a ticket for the match. His friends will go to the fan zone on the Cours de Vincennes, when the Real supporters will be in their fan zone at the park of the legion of honor, in Saint-Denis.6,800 police officers and gendarmes are thus mobilized by the police headquarters of Paris to ensure the security of the event.
But for nothing in the world, they would have missed that. “People come for the atmosphere, to experience something great. They come before, they don’t come just for the game. You don’t see that with other teams. You have to see it to believe it. Football is a religion in Liverpool!“, assures one of them.
As with Real Madrid, some 22,000 tickets are reserved for them for the final. But 60,000 Liverpool supporters are expected by Saturday night in Paris. The club’s inescapable hymn to the seven “big-eared cups”, “You’ll never walk alone“, will not resonate only at the Stade de France.