After the new failure of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League with this elimination in the semi-final against Borussia Dortmund, French football places its ultimate European hope in the hands of Olympique de Marseille, still in the running to pocket a ticket for the grand final of the Europa League. Indeed, the Phocéens, who had to settle for a draw (1-1) in the first leg at the Vélodrome, will have to achieve a nice accomplishment against Atalanta this Thursday on the lawn of the Atleti Azzurri stadium. Italia – Gewiss Stadium for the return match. Unlike the poster against Benfica where the second leg of this quarter was played at home, OM supporters will have the difficult mission of carrying the colors of a city and the voice of a people in Lombardy, while this trip to Italy was a real journey to organize with limited parking which has already literally shaken the city of Bergamo since the first leg. All the Italian media were rave about the popular fervor and the electric atmosphere at the Vélodrome.
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Unanimously, the Italian journalists were shocked by the Marseille enclosure, during the first round of the double confrontation, to the point where the Marseille supporters became a parameter not to be neglected for Gian Piero Gasperini’s players. However, Italy is a country where football is elevated to the rank of art and where tifosi and other ultra groups have a real preponderant role in culture and society. La Gazzetta dello Sport wrote: “I don’t know how many stadiums in Europe have an atmosphere that even comes close to that of the Vélodrome: to win here, in such an atmosphere, we have the feeling that it takes a real feat. Anfield looks like a library in comparison”. Corriere della Sera added that “during the entire match, the stadium shook. The two turns respond to each other in an unrivaled game. The Dea had to face the Vélodrome effect, unique in Europe”. La Repubblica had continued with a similar analysis, asserting “Atalanta was stronger than OM, but the Vélodrome is a container of broken noise because each sector of the stadium supports it in its own way. The result is an incredible roar that never stops..
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Atalanta Bergamo – OM: follow the pre-match live!
Limited parking, but on fire
In a stadium under construction reduced to 15,000 seats, only 750 seats will be available in the outdoor parking lot of Gewiss Stadium. A very limited number, especially for one of the most popular clubs in France which has a habit of making large, impressive trips. But this exception did not frighten the Marseillais who arrived in Lombardy with great motivation: “I don’t think the number of fans in a park has any influence on whether the stadium can be set on fire or not. We have to appreciate the chance of being part of the 750 supporters who will be there, who will follow their team in the semi-final of the European Cup, so I think we are all over-motivated to give everything to our players. With this mentality, it can make a lot of noise with 750, as much as 4000 sleeping supporters”tells us Clément who hit the road Wednesday evening so as not to miss anything from this large golden poster.
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While OM are experiencing an up-and-down season, marked by numerous injuries and no less than four coaches on their bench, this return match against Atalanta represents a golden opportunity to end this campaign in historic fashion. The supporters do not hide their excitement for one of the most important meetings in recent years: “I remain confident for this return match. We played a solid match in the first leg, we deserved the victory. Although we only have 4 TCC victories away this season, I feel that OM can overthrow Bergamo and win this final. Europe is in OM’s DNA, unlike our opponent and that can make the difference. This is clearly one of the most important matches in the history of OM, we have been lacking titles for years, we are 90 minutes away from a European final, the stakes are immense and we hope that the players are well aware of this”, explains Clément, OM supporter and member of one of the associations present in Bergamo this week. But how to choose these lucky 750? That was the whole big question that needed to be answered.
A meticulous organization
A real headache was imposed on all the groups of supporters who were forced to reject many requests. Finally, the 750 places will be distributed between the cores of the different associations, some of which have encountered some problems with the rule imposed by the Italians on nominative tickets: “the big constraint came from the Italian authorities who impose nominative tickets. We were therefore forced to provide our personal information. All this has disrupted our organization, in fact when there are withdrawals, we set up a queue system. Here it happened, but the Italian authorities refused to change the tickets. We therefore found ourselves with one less person in the J9 (Peugeot brand mini-bus, editor’s note) and with one extra seat. Apart from that, I don’t remember any particular difficulties compared to usual”, assures us a member of the board of directors who insisted on remaining anonymous. The nominative ticket system had already upset FC Nantes supporters last season, when they went to Turin for the match against Juventus in the Europa League.
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The city of Bergamo organized a new meeting on Wednesday to establish an official procedure. Thus, the Marseille groups will be gathered in Piazzale Alpini, where the police will be present to monitor the situation, before shuttles will be made available to take French supporters safely to the Gewiss Stadium. A fervor that the Marseillais who will be there promise: “I don’t think we “establish” a fervor. Fervor cannot be organized, you have it or you don’t. There you will have 750 motivated people. Everyone will be aware of how lucky they are to be there, they will be overexcited animals in this cage. We have a young member of the association who replaces the person who withdrew, in the absence of a change of name on the ticket, he will surely stay in J9 or he will go to a bar to see the match with a local we know . As long as he can fit in the yard. The organizational difficulties were mainly linked to the high demand for places in the section (30) and the number of places allocated to us (9)”, concluded this Marseille supporter of this association who participated in the logistics and organization of this trip to Italy. Impressed at the Vélodrome, Italy could be shocked on home soil in the return match.
Italian authorities on alert
Behind this Marseille fervor lies intense preparation from the Bergamo municipality. Despite the low number of tickets made available to OM, the city of Bergamo expects more than a thousand Marseille supporters in its streets on Thursday. Due to a fairly negative reputation on the other side of Mont Blanc, security measures will be strict. The police presence had already been considerably reinforced on Wednesday in the places most at risk such as around the station and the very popular fortified medieval district of Città Alta. On Wednesday afternoon, the presence of supporters in the city was still quite weak, despite a few OM jerseys in the Città Alta, but no ultra groups. The majority of Marseille associations took the road during the night from Wednesday to Thursday to arrive in Bergamo in the morning. Among the precautions, the Municipality of Bergamo has renewed the usual anti-alcohol ordinance: from Thursday 9 a.m. to Friday 6 a.m. in areas located such as the Gewiss Stadium, the Centro Piacentiniano and the Centro storico di Città Alta , the sale of alcoholic beverages above 5 degrees is prohibited in containers or cans, including in supermarkets and vending machines.
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The consumption of alcoholic beverages is nevertheless authorized in restaurants “provided that it takes place at the same time as the immediate consumption of food and only in the premises used to serve it or in regularly authorized areas”. Present in Bergamo, Foot Mercato questioned the Carabinieri deployed in the streets: “in more than 15 years in the Bergamo police, I have rarely prepared so much a week for a football match. We have had a lot of meetings in recent weeks and we activated the system much earlier than planned. France had a special week with public holidays so we wanted to anticipate. We are not here to play bad referees, we know the importance of football, but we first want to calm things down with the Marseillais and prevent the party from being spoiled., explains Tommaso, a Bergamo police officer and Atalanta supporter. In any case, the fans have something to answer for since the local newspaper The Eco of Bergamo distributed more than 20,000 blue and black flags created in collaboration with the club and the airport, so that residents can decorate the balconies of houses. A way to make the team feel the proximity of an entire city. A way to seal this indissoluble bond that exists between Atalanta and its inhabitants. To make a team that delights and dreams of flying even further on the wings of enthusiasm.
Pub. THE 05/09/2024 2:17 p.m.
Update 05/09/2024 5:50 p.m.
