Atletico (A - well home actually) - MADrid REDS Report

The visit of LFC to Madrid has been a fantastic experience for Madrid based Reds and Atleti fans as well. They head to Anfield for the next CL game with new friends to have beers with and new friends waiting to be made. The friendship between both sets of fans and even the police was very good to see.
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Fans game:

Organised by "nige" of RAWK, Spirit of Shankly and Atleti peña "Señales de Humo" with some help from Mariano Recuero of the MADrid REDS, this match was a great success - though the LFC fans lost 6-2 on the pitch. Apparently an excellent performance in a red shirt was given by MADrid REDS' Amador Moreno. Plenty of beers and songs with the Atleti team and all the supporters in the "Red Corner" Irish pub afterwards - the landlord being an Atleti/LFC fan apparently - there seem to be a lot of these in Madrid, and probably many, many more after the game this week. Whilst the match was perfectly organised, nige's accommodation wasn't - his mates all disappeared and he (and 12 pairs of used shorts/socks close by) ended sleeping on my sofa.

Fans Match - LFC official news

Telemadrid News report of the game
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Interview by Marca:


Ian Pinto, who had travelled from Melbourne, Australia for the game, was interviewed by a reporter from Marca sports paper, with me and Christophe Cogghe, President of the Flemish Reds in Belgium. Bit of a nothing article, but they will be back in the Triskel for the second Atleti game.

Full Marca article

The story also made it on to Torres' official website ; Dodgy Translation here:
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Match Build Up:

More Reds were featured on Telemadrid, including nige and our mates from the Barcelona Reds. Poor nige in this clip hasn't got a clue what the reporter is saying, and to be honest neither have I - it's not exactly Spanish for Foreigners/Guiris...

Fans being interviewed before the game.

The rest of the day was filled with the chaos of getting 9 tickets from 4 different contacts and trying to get everyone in the same place at the same time to swap cash for tickets (nightmare, especially when everyone is on Spanish Time). At least all of the tickets were face value from decent people (mostly Atleti fans).
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The Match:

We all know how the match went. Those of us in the home seats had some nice banter with the Atleti fans around us in the stadium, but it was all very friendly stuff.

The farewell (and guard of honour) that the Atleti fans gave the LFC fans at the end was surreal and fantastic. Certainly a million miles away from the reception you might get in Rome...

Atleti fans singing and applauding LFC after the game: (my video)
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Post Match:

On the way up the hill from the stadium to the metro, as well as countless handshakes from the locals, we ran into Badgeman and he very kindly gave Mode Jnr (Alex) his JFT96 badge. Badge man and Mode Jnr A very nice bloke.
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(Oh and Rafa was also wearing the MADrid REDS tie we gave him again - we are still unbeaten in this tie, hehehe)

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PS/PD. The Portsmouth (H) game will not be televised in any Madrid pub that we know of... it is everyone's internet connection for itself!