Supporters of champions Atlético Madrid and second division winners Espanyol could at last see their teams in action
“I had waited a long time to live this moment,” Marcelino García Toral said, speaking for so many. Since he took over from Gaizka Garitano in January, the Athletic Club manager has won the Spanish Super Cup, been at two Copa del Rey finals and seen his team beat Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, but he hadn’t seen this. This, he said when at last the place they call the cathedral had fallen quiet again, was “extraordinary.”
Saturday evening and along Pozas – less a street, more a portal drawing football fans to the ground – people were spilling out of bars. On the screen on the side of San Mamés, a man in red and white banged a drum: live pictures, not another recording. Below it, two boys sat on the pavement swapping football stickers and waiting for the doors to open. This time, 18 months later, they would. It was time to go home.
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