Lille (Lens)

Dosing off with Gazzetta pages all around me I was gearing up for the Lille-Milan Champs Lge fixture. I was sure I wouldn't finish off the article before passing out. Yet, a tiny parenthesis in the middle of nowhere said (in a way indicating it was so superfluous to the reader that it could have easily been left out) that the match was going to be played in Lens, not Lille. Yeah right...I might have been dreaming already. No I wasn't! I had a hotel booked in Lille, and my French geography did not permit me to stay calm since Lens is only half an hour south of Lille. Only after checking mappy did the panic start to ease off.

Since the group draw was made, I knew I couldn't miss the fixtures in Lille and Anderlecht...Milan close to home. To say that getting tickets is rather complicated is an undrestatement. It involves a lot of emails, telephone calls (some of them including some very helpful, gentle, colourful Italian language), mad driving, meeting strangers etc. The end result is you're entering the Felix Bollaert, Lens's concrete people container - used in France 98 - with the visiteurs surrounded by hoards of impressively serious looking policemen in full riot gear.

I won't bother you much with the game. A 0-0 which won't exactly be remembered in the history of football. With just one forward Milan are always less spectacular. But it's always nice to be close to your beniamini.

By the way, the 30 minute drive back to the hotel waiting for us in Lille took us an hour and a half. It was to be expected when a city moves to another to watch its football team play. It proved to be worth it. Lille is a charming city...3 hours to reach it slightly less.