Petrol fumes fill the nostrils of passengers through an open window as a battered blue bus belches and wheezes its way to the northern part of Quito, Ecuador’s capital.
After traversing a row of breeze blocks houses it splutters to a halt and the supporters of LDU Quito, or ‘Liga’ as they are commonly called, spill out of the doors on the pavements.
From the main road the Estadio Rodrigo Paz Delgado is hidden from view, carved into a hillside and behind tall grey walls topped with barbed wire. Fruit sellers from a nearby market stalls, many of them indigenous Quechua women wearing traditional bowler hats, are cutting late deals on stock they would otherwise have to pack up for the day.
