ONDARKNIGHTFOR DORTMUND,FANS SHINE BRIGHT...

About 15 minutes or so before the scheduled kick-off time, the final decision not to play the game was made known.

The Monaco team went out and had a light training session, and you can’t really blame them because they had a big game to prepare for and would have to come down from the surge of adrenaline, so it was only right they were given that opportunity.

The Monaco fans started to chant ‘ Dortmund, Dortmund’, and we had the Dortmund fans applauding in return.

I always think that football fans outdo themselves when faced with situations like this, and it puts into perspective all the bitter point-scoring you see week-in, week-out.

I was in the club shop this morning, and I’m sure they will have done a roaring trade in the half-and-half scarves with Dortmund and Monaco.

There’s far more that unites fans than divides them, and that’s what I’ll take away from Tuesday night, the coming together of the Dortmund and the Monaco fans.

That bond will probably never be broken. It won’t be forgotten by Dortmund fans and vice-versa.

The Twitter campaign that Dortmund spearheaded with the hashtag #bedforawayfans was indicative of that, and it was great to see the pictures of Dortmund fans in their strips and Monaco fans in their strips together, as the visiting fans were being put up by their comrades from this part of Germany.

IF THERE’S any good to come out of a night like Tuesday, it is those heartwarming pictures which make us all realise that we are all human beings. When there are people’s lives at risk, there’s a far bigger picture.

We all love football. Those of us working for BT Sport at the game, myself, Don Hutchinson and Darrell Currie, we were all geared up for the game.

But when you are talking about someone being seriously injured, and what could have happened with three explosive devices like that, then football is only a small part of your life really.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t love it, and we all do, but the experience has hopefully made some people realise the cheap insults that fly back and forth between fans mean nothing really.

It is subdued this morning in the city, and you can sense that everyone is still in shock over what happened.

There will be some who will say that it is too soon to play the game, but the decision has been taken, and Dortmund would have been part of that.

So, everyone will go along with it, but the feeling that is in the air is certainly one more of sadness than of worry. The police have made clear that security will be significantly tightened, and while you can never guarantee the safety of everyone in a public arena, you can do your best to make sure people are safe.

Anyone who was there will certainly never forget what they were doing on the 11th April 2017. We were all here to witness a football match, a wonderful occasion, but events took over.