In March 2003, my mate Matt (Skinny, Skinwar, Turtle, Italian Li - I’ve actually never called him Matt) and I headed to Milan to watch AC Milan play Juventus in a Serie A game. This being the early days of the internet and certainly no social media on our radars, we thought it would be fine to just show up without a ticket.
As I’ve now realized, 16 years later, Italian games are all scheduled for a Sunday at the same time and a few get moved around literally a couple of weeks before. We didn’t know this and assumed the game was Sunday. After a comical night in Essex where we stayed with a Japanese girl who didn’t speak English, who we had met whilst traveling in New Zealand two years earlier, we flew from Stansted and arrived in Milan Saturday afternoon. As we were still in a young traveling mindset, we stayed in a six man dorm room in a hostel. After quickly realizing we had no plan and weren’t refined enough to have any cultural taste at that point, we decided why not head to the San Siro and just have a look. As we got closer to the stadium it soon became obvious from the crowds that the game was taking place that night. A close shave through our own naivety.
We bought tickets from a tout for less than €20 who somewhat hurried us through the transaction. As we turned around after the purchase he was being spoken to by police. I think our story when we got home was that he was escorted away and thrown in a van. I’m not entirely sure how accurate that is.
The San Siro was as magnificent as we had imagined. We had both forged a love for Italian football from the Gazzetta Football Italia days on Channel 4. Gazza, Platty, James Richardson sat in a coffee shop holding a pink newspaper. A truly glorious era.
As we walked up the famous corner spirals of the stadium, we looked down and saw all kinds of commotion, flares were being thrown, fans were running with scarves over their faces, police sirens provided a soundtrack for the crisp March air.
Milan beat Juve 2-1 that night. All the goals were in the first 25 minutes from Shevchenko and Inzaghi for Milan and Tudor for Juve, although there were as a flurry of chances for either side throughout. Our seats were high up behind a goal, above the Juve fans and across from the Milan ultras in the Curva Sud, providing a spectacular sight at kick off and throughout a very enjoyable game featuring some of the best players in the world. We didn’t know it then but we would see them again in just a couple of months.
AC Milan:
Dida, Nesta, Costacurta (Laursen), Maldini, Simic, Rui Costa (Ambrosini), Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf, Inzaghi, Shevchenko (Serginho). Subs not used: Abbiati, Brocchi, Redondo, Rivaldo. Coach: Ancelotti
Juventus:
Buffon, Tudor, Thuram, Montero (Pessotto), Ferrara, Nedved, Zambrotta (Del Piero), Camoranesi, Davids, Tacchinardi, Zalayeta (Trezeguet). Subs not used: Chimenti, Fresi, Birindelli, Luliano. Coach: Lippi
Goals: Shevchenko (4), Tudor (9), Inzaghi (25)
Attendance: 78,861
Highlights: https://youtu.be/n4uW9czIk3w
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