Paul Roger, Media365: Published on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 1:48 p.m.
On the eve of the Champions League match between Porto and Royal Antwerp, clashes broke out between fans of the two camps in the Portuguese city on Monday evening.
While a Parisian fan was seriously injured in his leg on Monday evening in Milan city center after being stabbed by a rival fan on the eve of the fourth day's Champions League match between Milan and Paris Saint-Germain, incidents also occurred in Porto, ahead of the Group H match. Between the Dragons and Royal Antwerp, they finished last with three defeats in the same number of matches. Clashes broke out between supporters of the two camps, forcing local police to use rubber bullets Before making about ten arrests.
“Revenge” against the Portuguese?
According to Dutch-language Belgian daily newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, this could be 'revenge' for the Portuguese Ultras after the events of the first leg in Antwerp, which Sergio Conceicayo's men won 4-4 despite trailing at the end of the first half. 1. At the end of this new defeat, Antwerp supporters, very angry, wanted to attack their Portuguese counterparts in the visitors' car park. The police were forced to intervene to avoid clashes between fans of the two camps, and went so far as to use water cannons to calm the Belgian fans.
“We don't have a chance”
Royal Antwerp's general manager also expects to deprive his captain Toby Alderweireld and his French goalkeeper Jean Botez, Sven Jakes, of a new “complicated” match, but above all we will tell ourselves that we will play without pressure: half of our team will do that. He explained in RTBF: “It must be made up of Young players, sometimes very young players, they should have fun and try to play relaxed and then, given the situation in the standings, we have to take something.” We will not lie to each other. On paper, with our three defeats, we have no chance… But football is football, you never know what could happen.”
