AMPED-UP Brits have kicked off the party in Spain ahead of tomorrow’s stellar Tottenham vs Manchester United Europa League final.
Up to 70,000 footie fans have flocked from the UK to sunny Bilbao where spirits are high and the cerveza is flowing.
Some are braving an epic 32-hour-plus ferry ride which set sail at 10pm on Sunday evening and won’t arrive until 8am on Tuesday morning.
With flights to Spain rocketing over £1,000 after the Prem teams sealed their final spots, many took advantage of the cheaper sea-route option, which set them back £260 for a cabin.
The sky-high air prices are due to just six direct flights from Britain to the Basque region’s industrial port city each day.
And with only 65 hotels in Spain’s tenth largest city, accommodation has been fully-booked for weeks.
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Each club has millions of fans across the globe, but since there are just 14,000 tickets allocated to each team, bagging a seat to the showpiece event has been a tricky task.
Last night, precious tickets to the big game were selling on the black market for up to £10,000.
EasyJet was charging £1,823 to fly from Gatwick to Bilbao on Wednesday morning and return on Thursday morning, while the cheapest hotels for Wednesday night cost around £1,200.
But for those fans who managed to snap up the golden tickets, footage has shown them enjoying themselves.
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A Bilbao bar was flooded with Brit fans chanting and drinking ahead of the anticipated final.
Spurs fans were also seen welcoming the team bus as it arrived in the city one day before the clash.
Footage taken by The Sun showed fans arriving to fill the streets of Bilbao about 40 hours before kick-off.
Despite dismal Premier League seasons – United finishing 16th in the table and Spurs in 17th, perilously close to the relegation zone – die-hard supporters were emptying their bank accounts and flocking to Bilbao.
Aside from European glory, the victorious team qualifies for next season’s cash-riddled Champions League, worth a cool £100m to the club lifting the prized trophy.
The travel chaos endured by thousands of footie fans has mirrored the 1987 American road trip comedy movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy.
Spurs fan John Affleck of Enfield, Herts., was today enjoying local delicacy pintxos – snacks on a slice of bread resembling an open sandwich – washed down with Sangria.
He told The Sun: “I flew to Madrid then got the train down. There are no hotel rooms so I’m bunking up with a pal on his hotel floor.
“The trip will cost me more than £5,000. I’m broke, but I really don’t care. We just need to win.”
Footie fanatics get the party started early
By Sun man in Bilbao, Dave Courtnadge
IT’S barely midday in Bilbao on the day before the Europa League final between Manchester United and Spurs – but it’s already getting lively.
I arrived in the city at about 9am after a 32-HOUR ferry ride from Portsmouth.
And the first thing a lot of fellow fans planned to do was find a pub for a well-earned drink.
Walking around the area around the San Mames stadium this morning, a fair few others had the same idea.
Many have had long journeys, stopping off overnight in another city to keep down the soaring cost of getting here, with some direct flights over £1,000.
So it’s no surprise many are already getiing the party started, or the Bilbao leg of the party anyway.
Spurs fan Gary, who flew out from London before an overnight stay in a Madrid hotel resembling a “prison cell”, joked as he supped a pint in the sun: “I’m just getting some practice in for tomorrow.”
The atmosphere has been brilliant so far, and hopefully that will continue.
There had been claims that Spurs fans are set to outnumber United fans by 5 to 1, with an estimated 50,000 supporters of the two English sides expected to arrive.
One Tottenham follower I spoke to joked that they had bought all the flights out of London to keep the Reds out.
Based on the number of Spurs shirts I’ve already seen, he might be right.
Frank Johns, a Red Devils season ticket holder, jetted out yesterday from Heathrow via Schiphol in Amsterdam.
He said: “It has been a pitiful season but none of that will matter if we lift the trophy.”
Under-fire Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglou face the chop if they don’t prevail in the final – cruelly dubbed “El Crapico” by rival fans and pundits.
Amorim masterminded Manchester United’s 7-1 semi-final demolition of ten-man Athletic Bilbao.
Man Utd vs Spurs – Europa League final: Kick-off time, TV channel and live stream info for Bilbao clash
And Postecoglou guided his Tottenham team to a 5-1 triumph over Norwegians Bodo/Glimt in the other to set up the all-English final.
A row over the winning side’s qualification to the Champions League, and the mega money windfall it brings in TV and advertising revenues, has been stoked by Arsene Wenger – ex-boss of Spurs’ rivals Arsenal.
The dour Frenchman believes neither the Red Devils or Spurs should be allowed to compete in the top tier European trophy.
Uefa changed its rules in 2014 to allow the winners of the Europa League to qualify for the Champions League – but Wenger believes this is “not right”.
The ex-Gunners boss said: “No. They should qualify automatically for the Europa League but not necessarily for the Champions League.”
Since the rebranding of the Europa League, Uefa’s second biggest continental club competition, in 2009-10, no team lower than 12th has reached the final or won it.
Sevilla, 12th in La Liga, lifted the trophy in 2023 while Fulham, who also finished 12th in the Prem in the 2009-10 campaign, lost the final to Atletico Madrid in 2010.
Wenger departed Arsenal in 2018 before being appointed FIFA’s head of global football development a year later.
He has proposed a raft of controversial changes, including tweaks to the offside rule and a biennial World Cup.
The United-Spurs final is the fifth all-English European showpiece.
Life on board a ferry headed to Bilbao
By Dave Courtnadge
I HAD no idea what to expect after booking a 32-hour ferry trip from Portsmouth to Bilbao to see Manchester United hopefully beat Spurs in Wednesday’s Europa League final.
I’d also read reviews of the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry ride, calling it “one of the most serene ways to travel to the Continent”.
I’d heard the BBC podcast on Man Utd and West Ham fans having a full-blown riot on a boat trip to Holland in the 1980s.
The reality of my trip so far, thankfully, is nothing like either of those.
The atmosphere has been absolutely brilliant, with fans of both clubs mixing in the pub long before the 10pm departure, and in the ferry bar long after last orders at midnight.
There’s even an Arsenal fan out here hoping to see Spurs lose too.
I enjoyed a few in the beer garden of the Ship and Castle near the ferry port on the sunny Sunday before we took off.
I’d be talking to some fans about the mad boat trip ahead and plans for Bilbao for 10 minutes before we’d establish who one another supported.
There’s still good banter about both sides’ abysmal seasons, but with a lot of the chat being about who is actually worse, not better.
Plenty of Murphy’s and some classic cabaret just added to the holiday mood once we were on board.
We ramped up the booze cruise vibes at about 1am by venturing out on to the top deck (I was pretty amazed they left the doors unlocked considering the clientele on board).
But after convincing one particularly drunk shipmate that he’d be in serious trouble if he jumped in the sea, I thought it safer to head back inside.
After another nightcap I returned to my four-man cabin which thankfully I have all to myself.
Because my cabin is in the middle of the boat it’s pitch black. That, coupled with not being disturbed half-way through the night by my two young kids, meant I slept like a baby.
As for sea-sickness, there’s not so much a gentle rocking of the waves but rather a weird constant jolty sensation like you get when you start a car that has left me a bit wobbly.
I’m sure it’s nothng to do with all that Murphy’s anyway.
I’ve at least managed to hold down my breakfast, which I ate surrounded by the normal holidaymakers, not football fans, who make up about half of the passengers on board.
Not surprisingly, most of the supporters were still in bed at that point, but I’m sure I’ll catch them in the bar later for the quiz and more cabaret.
Chants of “Keano, Keano…” from down the corridor suggests some are now starting to rise.
As for me, it’s time to check out that top deck again…
Tottenham were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League final, while Chelsea beat Arsenal 4-1 in the Europa League final in the same year.
United beat Chelsea in the 2008 Champions League final and Spurs KO’d Wolves to win the 1972 Uefa Cup.
Tottenham have already beaten the Manchester outfit on three occasions this season – twice in the league and once in the Carabao Cup.
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They are looking to end a trophy drought that dates back to 2008 and has hung over the club – to the delight of opposing fans.
United meanwhile have continued to be dire in the Prem with Amorim claiming his side are “not ready” to be competitive domestically and in the Champions League.
Man Utd vs Spurs – Europa League final: Kick-off time, TV channel and live stream info for Bilbao clash
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
