In 2004, I went to Milan with some friends to see the last match of the season between Milan and Roma. For most of the season, Roma had been at the top of the table, but as the last match drew near Milan had closed the gap and could now decide the season at home. Thousands of Romanisti had travelled from Rome to Milan for this Match-Of-The-Season.
Since we had bought our tickets on-line, we had to go to a box office outside San Siro to retrieve our tickets. Only problem was that the office was just where the Romanisti landed with their buses. “Crap”, I thought, but we gotta have the tickets! As the Roma supporters appeared, it was obvious that they had not come in peace. In fact, they were in the business of war-waging, truly aggressive Djingis Khan-style. After two minutes the whole area outside San Siro looked more like a scene from Omaha Beach at Normandie than something else. The Italian Carabinieri, not exactly known for their reluctance to use force, immediately applied tear-gas. The Romanisti answered with throwing bottles, Bengal lights and other stuff at the police. At the same time, Milanese Ultras prepared an assault on the Romanisti, they charged, and there was chaos.
To retrieve the damn tickets, I had to run through all of this. I leaved my friends at a safe place, and advanced slowly. The air was dense with smoke from Bengals and the tear gas stung in the eyes and nose. Eventually I got my tickets, but it took some time because I had to advance slowly and with caution.
Once inside the arena, the atmosphere was electric. The Milanisti drew first blood as Shevchenko scored after just 2 minutes. Even though the match was intense throughout the 90+ minutes, Roma never managed to recover. However, the match was interrupted several times as the Roma supporters threw Bengals on to the field and on the surrounding stands. Milan supporters threw stuff back at the Romanisti, but eventually the match ended with Milan as victors. A match day I will never forget.
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