Manchester City faced Borussia Monchengladbach on Wednesday night in an Etihad stadium with only 32,000 people in it.
Pep Guardiola pleaded to the fans after the game, explaining he wants the stadium to be full, because it would be better for him and his Manchester City players.
Manchester United on Thursday night will play in front of less fans than Manchester City. It’s a totally different reasoning, with Feyenoord reducing their ground capacity to under 30,000, around half what the stadium actually holds, in an attempt to avoid further UEFA sanctions for bad behaviour.
There’s also a big net around the bottom tier of fans to try and stop anyone being able to throw objects to the pitch.
Mourinho isn’t too happy about it, and Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf say he gave Feyenoord’s well behaved fans a pat on the head by saying: “It is the consequence of something negative that happened. I was not there, but I remember very well what happened against AS Roma. Certainly what happened on the streets of Rome.
“I do not think this is Feyenoord. Feyenoord is much bigger than a few hundred people who have caused these effects. Not only the club, the players are punished with this, I am being punished this, Giovanni (van Bronckhorst) will be punished, because we all want a full stadium.”
Mourinho said he’s played a friendly at Feyenoord’s De Kuip previously, so knows the support will be good even if the stadium is half full.
