Real Madrid are expecting an ‘invasion’ of Celtic fans backing Ange Postecolgou’s side in tomorrow’s Champions League Group F clash.
That’s according to AS, who say as many as 10,000 Celtic fans, 7,000 without tickets, are expected in the Spanish capital.
They explain that the match between Real Madrid has been declared a ‘high-risk’ match by authorities, with several concerns about the invasion of Scottish football fans.
Real Madrid are expectation around 54,000 fans in total for the game, with Celtic set to be ‘well supported’ on and off the pitch.
UEFA makes it compulsory to give 5% of the available seats to the away side, which in this case translates to 3,000 for Celtic.
What ‘worries’ Real Madrid, and also the police force, is that a further 7,000 ticketless fans are expected to land in Madrid between Tuesday and Wednesday.
As a precaution, they’ve categorised the game as ‘high-risk’ and the security arrangements will include more than 1,800 troops, 385 police officers from the National Police, 80 from the Municipal Police, 40 from the Samur-Protección Civil, three from the Fire Brigade, 62 members of the Red Cross and 1,254 security guards and assistants from the football club.
That is just a precaution, however, as there is a ‘certain tranquility’ about the situation as Celtic fans are known to be ‘spirited but peaceful’ and do not usually cause trouble. In fact, they were named best fans in the World by FIFA in 2017.
There are always exceptions, of course, and on Monday 40 Scots travelling between Alicante and Madrid were evicted from a train in Albacete for disturbing other passengers and insulting RENFE staff.
No such problems are anticipated ahead of the game, though, with Celtic fans se to be transferred to Plaza de Castilla from 3pm and then escorted to Avenida de Brasil to begin entering the stadium two hours before the match.
They will have to go through three security rings in that process, to ensure that the ticketless 7,000 can’t enter and nothing dangerous enters the stadium.
