UEFA Champions League: Napoli 1 - 3 Real Madrid: 5 Talking Points

4. The home crowd show great, though ultimately futile, spirit

The ever brilliant crowd at the San Paolo showed just what it meant to be in the business end of the premier club tournament in the world. Queuing up had started more than six hours before kick-off, and 10,000 Napoli faithful had already found their seats five hours before kick-off. By the time the referee drew breath after his first blast of the whistle, the stadium was filled to its rafters with massive banners and whirling scarves filling the night sky. Trailing 3-1 from the first leg, their optimism was astonishing, and uplifting.

Everytime Napoli moved forward they roared furiously, and everytime Madrid strung together more than a couple of passes, they whistled and booed even louder. Their spirit transmitted itself on to their representatives on the pitch, and almost, almost got their team back into it. And then Sergio Ramos decided to step and nip the fairtytale in the bud and although the last thirty minutes turned into a slow procession of Madrid’s passage to the quarters, no one left their seats as they waited to applaud their heroes who had just been at the end of a 6-2 aggregate hiding.

It was just fantastic to see a crowd get behind their team like that, win or, here is the important bit, lose.