It was supposed to be the biggest night in European football, a showpiece event - but for so many it turned into a waking nightmare.
Liverpool fans travelling to watch their team play in the final match of a thrilling season were kettled dangerously, made to wait for hours outside the ground and brutally targeted with pepper spray and tear gas in hellish scenes.
Not only this, but they were then blamed for the situation by UEFA and the French authorities. But the countless accounts, reports, images and videos shared across social media by fans and journalists provide overwhelming evidence of the mistreatment of fans and shambolic organisation by local authorities and the police.
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There are now numerous calls - including from the UK Government - for a full investigation to take place into Saturday's events. We have rounded up five key questions that we say must now be answered by those in charge of the organising, safety and policing of the final.
1. Why were fans funnelled into a dangerous bottleneck space outside the stadium?
Countless reports from fans and journalists tell a story of Liverpool fans being diverted through a very small space as they passed through an underpass on the lead up to the Stade de France on Saturday that created a dangerous bottleneck and huge delays. Sky News has used geolocating technology to show fans being funnelled through this very small area, made even tighter by deliberately parked police vans.
Sky reporter Melissa Reddy said: "My crew witnessed, were caught up in, and captured the truth of what happened last night. Fans were funnelled through a tiny passage that was made narrower by police vans. Squeezed into dangerous queues for hours while locals were aggressively forcing entry without intervention."
This account was backed up by freelance journalist Matt Pearson, who was caught up in this area. He said: "Some fans were held in the passageway for hours. The failure to respond to the initial error delayed thousands of fans from entering the stadium and meant kickoff was put back twice with swathes of seats still empty."
Daily Mail journalist Rob Draper posted a video showing how the police vans were deliberately parked in the underpass area, making a the access point much smaller. He said: "The pressure point which caused the majority of problems. Police had for some reasons parked 3/4 vans across the paths, making a broad walkway suddenly narrow causing a bottleneck."
French police and authorities must answer why they made this massive strategic mistake and also explain why they were so slow to recognise the huge problems it created for those supporters.
2. Who was behind other key strategic mistakes?
It appears that police then decided to stop the initial ticket checks in this area and elsewhere. Speaking to DW, Pierre Barthulemy, a lawyer and member of the board of Football Supporters Europe, said: "It was crazy to see that no-one understood the problem. No-one reacted.
"We lost two hours, then they decided to drop the first checkpoint and that was the point where people without tickets from the neighbourhood came and decided to climb over the fences. That was the point where it got completely out of control."
Kelly Simmons, women's professional game director at the Football Association said: "Crushed on the way in, unable to move for 90 minutes, all I could think about was we have to get out at the end. All the fans near me in that crush behaved impeccably, calling for calm and no panic."
It has been reported that with the early ticket checks abandoned, local people without tickets were able to get to the main gates of the stadium and force their way inside. It was at this point that many of the gates were shut and many Liverpool fans were not allowed into the stadium. At this point the police began firing tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd of Reds fans.
The problems were added to by the fact that just a couple of turnstiles were being used to allow thousands of supporters through, adding to the bottleneck situation. Sky Sports chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol reported from the scene on Saturday and told the story of how the Liverpool fans were made to wait for hours outside the game and how just a couple of turnstiles were open and letting people through.
He said he witnessed many French locals trying to force their way through at this point, adding: "From behind, young French men, boys surged in, tried to run in, climb over fences and get into the ground." At this point the police began firing tear gas and pepper spray into the crowd of Reds fans.
These are more strategic decisions that those running the operation on the ground must account for and explain.
3. Why did police behave so brutally towards Liverpool fans?
There are hundreds of reports from fans and journalists of brutal treatment by the French police towards Liverpool fans. Elderly, disabled or child supporters were targeted as they simply waited to be allowed into the ground.
Shocking videos show fans calmly walking through the turnstiles only to be sprayed in the face with pepper spray. Others waiting patiently on the concourse, having not been allowed in for hours, were also targeted with pepper spray and tear gas.
There are multiple reports and images of fans who had been kept waiting in a dangerous crush for hours, desperately waving their valid tickets towards the authorities on the other side of the fence, only to be targeted with pepper spray.
Mayor of Liverpool Joanne Anderson, who was at the match in Paris, has described the tactics of the French police as 'brutal and disgusting' and called for an immediate investigation. Liverpool MP Ian Byrne was also there, he described police tactics as 'ludicrously heavy handed towards LFC fans.'
He added: "There are literally thousands of first-hand accounts by fans who arrived at the Stade de France hours before kick off only to be indiscriminately pepper-sprayed or tear gassed by French police. Many elderly people, children, asthma sufferers and families out for a day to remember were among those pepper sprayed."
The French police were also heavily criticised by Professor Clifford Stott, an expert in crowd behaviour from Keele University. He said: "The evidence we are seeing is increasingly painting a picture about extremely poor crowd management on the part, particularly of the French police. The French police are notoriously bad at crowd management, their over-reliance on tear gas and distance weaponry.
"It seems to be that a lot of the key decisions in terms of restricting the movement of fans towards the stadium itself and then closing gates around the turnstiles, restricting movement even further and then firing tear gas into an already densely crowded area, all speak of very poor decisions on behalf of the police."
The French police must be held accountable for their decisions to target Liverpool fans in this way.
4. Why were fans not protected before and after the match?
As if those Liverpool fans who did make it into the Stade de France on Saturday night had not endured enough, many were subsequently targeted by local gangs on the way out.
There have been multiple accounts of fans being robbed, beaten and injured by local gangs both before and after the match around the Stade de France. Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram was one of those targeted by thieves, having his phone, bank cards and train tickets stolen as he was en route into the stadium.
Former Liverpool player Jim Beglin described terrifying scenes outside the stadium after the game. He tweeted: "Post-match last night was the scariest I’ve ever experienced. Organised gangs set about mugging departing fans. We ran a gauntlet of thuggery on our way to the Metro. Not a police officer in sight. Witnessed so many ambush attacks on unsuspecting attendees. Reprehensible."
While the police were quick to target Liverpool fans making their way into the stadium, it seems there was no plan to protect supporters who were leaving the area after the match. French police must answer why this was the case.
5. Will UEFA and French authorities accept their mistakes and apologise?
It is becoming increasingly clear to most people that the organisation and decisions made by those in charge on Saturday were disastrous. From UEFA to French police and politicians, key decisions about getting fans into the ground and keeping them safe before and after were wrong.
French newspaper L'Equipe today laid the blame squarely on those in charge, demanding that the authorities 'admit' their mistakes. But it wasn't just the actions and organising that will have enraged Liverpool fans, but attempts to lay the blame for the situation on Reds fans.
As Ian Byrne pointed out, UEFA initially cited the 'late arrival of fans' for the reason kick-off had been delayed, before quickly changing this message to one about 'fans arriving with fake tickets." This latter notion has been repeated several times by senior French ministers today, despite overwhelming evidence that many Liverpool fans with genuine tickets were simply not being allowed in.
In his letter to the foreign secretary, Mr Byrne wrote: "The French authorities and UEFA are quite simply covering their own backs with this narrative. As a Liverpool fan I was in Paris for the match and I can honestly say the situation outside the ground was one of the most horrendous experiences of my life - and as a Hillsborough survivor I do not make this comment likely."
If there is an independent investigation that highlights the operational failures of those in charge, UEFA and the French government must apologise for their attempts to blame Reds fans for what went on. Whether they will do the decent thing or not remains to be seen.
