Liverpool requests formal investigation into ugly scenes around Champions League final

 

Liverpool Football Club has requested a formal investigation into the ugly scenes that marred the Champions League final in Paris on Saturday.

The game, which Real Madrid won 1-0, was delayed by over 35 minutes after Liverpool fans struggled to enter the stadium despite many arriving hours before kickoff.

Tear gas was used by French police as supporters were held in tightly packed areas around the Stade de France, causing safety fears to spread among those who were there.

"We are hugely disappointed at the stadium entry issues and breakdown of the security perimeter that Liverpool fans faced this evening at Stade de France," Liverpool said in a statement.

"This is the greatest match in European football and supporters should not have to experience the scenes we have witnessed tonight.

"We have officially requested a formal investigation into the causes of these unacceptable issues."

European football's governing body, UEFA, said the issue was caused by people without valid tickets trying to enter the stadium and that tear gas was used to maintain control.

"In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles," UEFA said in a statement.

"This created a build-up of fans trying to get in. As a result, the kick off was delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many fans as possible with genuine tickets to gain access.

"As numbers outside the stadium continued to build up after kick off, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them away from the stadium.

"UEFA is sympathetic to those affected by these events and will further review these matters urgently together with the French police and authorities, and with the French Football Federation."

Liverpool fans are seen queuing outside the stadium prior to the UEFA Champions League final.

 

Photos showed fans crammed into fenced areas after a bottleneck formed around a particularly tight entry point at the Liverpool end.

Many fans with tickets say they were held back from entering the stadium in dangerously crowded areas and that communication from security was poor.

"People without tickets forced the barriers and tried to get inside the stadium to watch the match," a spokesperson for the Paris Police Prefecture told CNN. "These attempts created crowd movements."

As confusion spread ahead of kickoff, videos emerged on social media of people -- with no clear affiliation to a team -- scaling fences around the stadium and running into the ground.

The match eventually started but there were many empty seats at the Liverpool end of the stadium.

Merseyside Police, who attended the game in an observatory and advisory capacity, said "the vast majority of fans behaved in an exemplary manner, arriving at turnstiles early and queuing as directed."

"Their observations will be passed on to the relevant authorities as part of the debrief for the game," Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green said in a statement.

"We know that people would have witnessed a lot of distressing scenes last night and we wish everyone returning home from Paris a safe journey.

"Our focus today will be supporting Liverpool city council with the policing of the homecoming parade."

Tensions increased as fans were kept in crowded areas.

 

After the match, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says the team was aware of the pre-match incidents and that their families were impacted.

"I couldn't speak to my family yet, but I know the families had real struggles to get into the stadium," he said.

"I heard a few things that were not good, it was obviously pretty tricky out there but I don't know more about it."

Nigel Huddleston, UK Minister for Sport, Tourism and Civil Society, tweeted that he was concerned by "the upsetting scenes" around the stadium and said his department will "be working with the appropriate authorities to find out what happened and why."

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Liverpool vs. Real Madrid: The '50/50' Champions League final

Choose your color -- red or white. The bars and stands around Paris' Stade de France, the venue for Saturday's Champions League final, have certainly nailed their colors to the mast.

Walk past some and you could hear Liverpool's famous anthem, 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' blaring from outdoor speakers. Others had opted for Real Madrid's spine-tingling 'Hala Madrid y nada más.'

Thursday evening in the French capital had been somewhat quiet; certainly it would have been hard to guess than European football's showpiece event, moved from St. Petersburg follow Russia's invasion of Ukraine, would be taking place on Saturday.

Come Friday morning, however, it was a completely different story. Hundreds -- if not more -- fans of both sides started arriving and began filtering through the city.

Some ended up in bars and pubs, others made a beeline for the Stade de France on the outskirts of the city, already keen to take in the atmosphere ahead of what promises to be a memorable final.

This, after all, is a rematch of 2018. Real got the better of Liverpool that day thanks largely to Gareth Bale's sublime overhead kick, perhaps the greatest goal to ever grace a Champions League final.

Liverpool, though, was left with a sense of what might have been following Mo Salah's early exit due to an injury caused by Sergio Ramos. You can call it revenge or, as Salah put it in the aftermath of Real's semifinal comeback against Manchester City, there is a "score to settle."

Mo Salah was forced to leave the final early in 2018 after this foul by Sergio Ramos.

 

On paper, it would be hard to argue that Liverpool boasts the better team, both individually and collectively -- but Real's run to the final has been as improbable as it has been entertaining.

Three comeback wins in successive rounds, against Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and then Manchester City, have given this team -- which has won the European Cup 13 times -- an aura of invincibility in this competition. In an attempt to offer an explanation, Real defender Nacho simply said there was "magic" at the Bernabeu on nights such as those.

It remains to be seen whether that magic can be bottled up and transported from Madrid to Paris for Saturday's final, but it seems to have given fans an unshakable confidence ahead of the match.

"3-0 Madrid!" shouted one boisterous group of supporters when asked for their score predictions outside the stadium. "A Benzema hat-trick."

'They know the way to win'

Claude Makelele, the former Real star and one of the most iconic midfielders of all time, is decidedly less confident.

Having won the Champions League with Los Blancos in 2002, narrowly beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1, he knows these finals don't often unfold in the way many predict.

Makelele admits his allegiances lie with Real on Saturday, but has been enthralled by the football Jürgen Klopp's team has played.

"They've made it to the final playing the way they want to play, that they have shown for the last three years," Makelele told CNN. "Coming back to the final again, it will be a different Liverpool [to the team that lost to Real in 2018] I'm sure, 100%.

"But it will also be a different Madrid. Now they play in a different way; possession, transition ... I think it will be very interesting. Liverpool are maybe small favorites but I believe with Madrid, they always play finals, they always know the way to play finals and win.

Claude Makelele won the Champions League with Real Madrid in 2002.

 

"The team will be [most important] for both, they're not just individuals attacking and defending; both teams are teams, from attackers to midfielders and defenders. Both teams have great balance -- for me it's 50/50, it's tough to pick a winner."

Real players, too, know exactly what lies before them.

Speaking to CNN earlier this week, forward Rodrygo said playing against Liverpool in the final is "the hardest" test this team has faced in the Champions League this season.

"If they are in the Champions League final now it is because they are the most difficult," he said. "We've been through Paris [Saint-Germain], Chelsea and yes, they're great teams, but Liverpool is also there, it's a great team.

"I didn't want to play against Liverpool, but now we have to play them and we know it's going to be difficult."

'Always be ready'

Real had Rodrygo to thank for helping it snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against Manchester City in the semifinal.

With the team trailing 5-3 on aggregate, manager Carlo Ancelotti brought the Brazilian off the bench with just over 20 minutes remaining and he went on to change the game completely.

Two goals, one either side of the 90 minute mark, ensured the game went to extra time, where a Karim Benzema penalty secured Real's passage through to the final in Paris.

Ancelotti perhaps may not have the reputation for being a tactical mastermind that Klopp or Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola do, but Rodrygo says the camaraderie Real's coach has built within the squad is truly unique.

The 21-year-old insists there will be no sulking from the players who are not selected to start on Saturday.

Rodrygo saved Real Madrid against Manchester City in the semifinal.

 

"I always try to give my best, starting or coming on later," Rodrygo explains. "I think we have a very good group, everyone is very focused and we know that if we start the match or come on, we have to help the team, we have to help Real Madrid.

"I think the coach is making it a little easier because we have players who are very close friends, we're friends too and this helps a lot. The times that whichever player enters, the opponent is already a little more tired.

"There the substitute has more space and that's where the player who entered later can decide the match -- that's what happened with me in the other knockout rounds. We know how important the whole team is, those that start the match and those that come on later, and we all have to always be ready."

Like Makelele in the past, Rodrygo will be hoping to etch his name into Real history and while the former French international knows the joys of winning a Champions League final, he has also experienced the heartbreak of defeat.

The Frenchman was part of the Chelsea team that lost to Manchester United in 2008 and still vividly recalls the feeling from that night in Moscow.

"When you win, you don't understand [what you have achieved] until the day after," he said. "When you lose, you understand straight away. This is the difference between winning and losing."

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