Fire alarms going off in the middle of the night, fireworks being let off to wake players, fans shouting outside hotels until the early hours of the morning… all of these things have happened in European football.
Sometimes supporters want to upset travelling squads, to give their home side the advantage. That is absolutely what the wife of Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi thinks happened ahead of the Serie A club’s match against Manchester United.
The tie is important for both clubs and their hopes of qualifying for the next round of the UEFA competition. For Manchester United, and their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it’s also the chance to put a recent crisis behind them, or to fall deeper into the pit of doom.
Calciomercato quote her as saying: “I don’t think it was an accident. Throughout the night in the hotel the siren was turned on at full power five times. It happened just when the team arrived, and only at night! Do you think this is an accident? Er, no. Such a ‘warm’ welcome from the local population feels terrible in the heart. I hope that our fans will support the team in the home game, and maybe the same thing will happen suddenly in an Italian hotel.”
That last bit is a clear suggestion, and perhaps threat, that similar could happen when Manchester United travel to Bergamo for the return fixture.
