Giant inflatable footballs wrapped in the Champions League star hovered at dusk in the Manchester skyline and the terraces were painted in the familiar colours of red, white and black.
Only on this night, the colours at Old Trafford were shared by the red and black of AC Milan and the black and white of Juventus. The tifo the Italians brought in 2003 coloured a grey final that ended goalless after 120 minutes.
Red and blue Mancunian schoolboys have dreamt of scoring a European Cup final-winning goal at Old Trafford but the only man to have had the honour was born in Dvirkivshchyna and had to be evacuated with his family following the Chernobyl disaster.
