Real Madrid face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final

It will feel as though Madrid is moving en masse to Milan over the next 48 hours as around 39,000 supporters make the 900-mile trip to watch Saturday’s Champions League final in the San Siro.

Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo said on Wednesday that his club wishes they had another 10,000 tickets such is the demand and those sentiments are echoed by Real Madrid who had 73,000 requests and had to draw out the names of the lucky fans.

The Giuseppe Meazza is an 80,000-seater stadium but with UEFA taking 42,000 tickets the clubs were left scrambling without success for an increase in allocation. Tickets were originally sold for between €70 (£53) and €440 (£335) but that price will quadruple on the black market as for only the second time in history two teams from the same city contest a European Cup final (the other time being two years ago when the same two sides met in Lisbon).

With both finalists coming from the same airport travel chaos is also likely to be multiplied. Such has been the demand that Spain’s leading low-cost airline has put on six extra flights to and four extra flights back from the final using Barcelona airport because the burden on Madrid’s is already at maximum.
And it’s not just supporters who are decamping to Milan – where the Champions League trophy was paraded on Thursday. Madrid Council will not miss out on the chance to promote itself as a city by setting up cheese and wine stalls between the two fan zones pushing Spanish products to travelling Spaniards and to the Italian hosts.