Updated:05/29/2021 23: 11h
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After two nights of altercations in the Ribeira, next to the famous D. Luis I bridge (Eiffel style), fans of the Chelsea and from Manchester City They showed a more cheerful and less aggressive profile until it was time to enter the emblematic Estadio do Dragao.
The decisive day of the Champions League It came as an antidote to the anxiety of the English ‘hooligans’, which in the end were not the 12,000 initially authorized but 16,500, because the demand grew so much that the capacity had to be expanded.
High-level guests brightened up the box, from Figo to Karanka, while the two shades of blue (City’s light blue, alongside Chelsea’s ‘blues’) invaded the stands, with a limited influx of spectators but it looked splendid.
Thousands of other British followers took up positions on the terraces of Rua Santa Catarina, Sá de Bandeira, Cedofeita or Rua das Flores. Also under the shelter of the Torre dos Clérigos you could hear the tinkling of beer mugs and, of course, all along the banks of the Douro River, both on the Porto side and on the Vila Nova de Gaia side, where the wineries are located. of the iconic Portuguese wine.
The liters of beer ran throughout the day and the owner of a cafe on Avenida de Aliados spoke on local television to say that he closed his store in the middle of the afternoon due to running out of stocks of the popular drink. “Yes, I decided to leave because, totally, I already ran out of beer supplies and it was completely absurd to keep that open.”
It was not the only one to whom it happened, that for something the second Lusitanian city was making money in a frantic way, as if the final of the Champions League had fallen like an economic mana to save the season after the prolonged onslaught of the coronavirus.
Hotel occupancy reached 76% on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with the highest rate in the segment of five-star establishments, which hung the ‘no rooms’ sign. And it is that heterogeneity took over the clientele: from the fans on the street to the UEFA staff.
Whole Porto spoke English. Already vaccinated for the most part, the fans rigorously complied with the requirements of presenting a negative PCR to be able to enter To Dragao, with completely opposite approaches as they let it be seen that they were fans of Chelsea or Manchester City.
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