There was around three-quarters of an hour to go until kick-off at the Stade de France and, while the Real Madrid end was close to full capacity, the Liverpool end was still half empty. That was when it became clear to those of us already inside that reports of fans having difficulty getting into the ground were accurate and that the situation outside was becoming increasingly serious.
The problems started in the southwest corner of the Stade de France, under a bridge that runs over the top of a busy motorway. It is the main pedestrian route from the train station in Saint-Denis to the stadium, but police had parked vans at one section of it, creating a bottleneck which thousands of Liverpool supporters were expected to funnel through. This led to long queues and a potentially dangerous crush.
