Unruly Barca fan locks horns with disappointed Manchester United supporters during a screening of Champions League final on Wednesday night.
“Back off, you moron,” she spat. “Have been tolerating your nonsense for a long time… You are a bloody hooligan… You should be bashed up like hell,” she hissed at the stupefied Barcelona supporter.
No, the scene wasn’t in Stadio Olimpico or Sam Platt’s pub near Old Trafford but a cosy little hotel called Avon Ruby in Dadar on Wednesday night. Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys have just been given a footballing lesson by the silky Catalans and the 150-odd city-bred Manchester United fans were still coming to grips.
The Barca supporter, a lone figure, had been at his foulest ever since his team went up 1-0. His volume and level of abuse increased as Messi pumped in one more. The red flags were down, the euphoria dead and there was a stout denial, yet the Red Devil-fans kept their cool until that moment when it all came apart.
Mumbai’s very own fan’s club has been screening Manchester United matches in the hotel’s basement hall for four years now. On Wednesday, if you didn’t come in by 10pm for the 12.15am game, tough luck. The sea of red T-shirts packed in a small room had whipped up the frenzy with anti-Barca, anti-Chelsea, anti-Liverpool and in short, anti-anything-but-United slogans. Even Mourinho, lurking in the shadows at AC Milan was not spared; the choicest abuses kept aside for him! By the time game started, the United fans had become hoarse.
Then it happened. Ronaldo got a free-kick, somehow Barca kept it out, the pressure started building on the Catalans, the Red Devils started turning on the heat, the front benchers started blocking the screen prompting even more abuses from the backbenchers when suddenly the screen went blank. “Calm down, calm down…” shouted the organisers. A few precious minutes rolled by when it flickered back to life again.
Or it shouldn’t have. For what followed was heartbreak. The Red Devils had conceded! Suddenly it all became very quiet. But momentarily. They didn’t believe that this side are capable of losing. But as the match wore on, the confidence turned into doubt and then disbelief as Messi delivered the coup de grace. It was all over bar the shouting, and they started trooping out before the final whistle. The bitter Barca supporter was the only bashing point.
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