Latest sports scores at — http://sports.arabtimesonline.com United fans celebrate triumph after tragedy
‘Good lift’
STOCKHOLM, May 25, (AFP): A crowd of Manchester United fans were cheering outside a Stockholm stadium on Wednesday as their team won the Europa League, a relief for the supporters after the Manchester terror attack 48 hours earlier.
“It’s fantastic to see them winning. We were always confident that we would win,” said George Malloy, a 69-year-old from Dublin.
“I think it will be a good lift for the people of Manchester,” he added.
Manchester fans were screaming and whistling in joy, while their Ajax counterparts were biting their nails as the English club won 2-0.
Outside the entrance of the modernly decorated Friends Arena in the Stockholm suburb of Solna, fans were upbeat and cheerful under sunny summer skies, but nervous about both the outcome of the match and security issues.
Ahead of Wednesday’s match, players held a minute’s silence in honour of the victims of Monday’s suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena which left 22 people dead.
For Mark, a 19-year-old Manchester fan living in Stockholm, this was no ordinary match.
“It was very special because of the events that happened in Manchester and now they qualify for Champions League,” he said.
Vijay Patel, a 29-year-old Manchester fan from the UK, said the team came out even stronger in the aftermath of the attack.
“It should motivate them ... they’re not just winning for the team they’re winning for the city,” he said.
Team supporters were celebrating hours earlier at a fan zone in Stockholm’s leafy Kungstradgarden park where they played football and took photos.
Manchester’s Juan Mata holds the trophy after winning 2-0 during the Europa League final between Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United at the Friends Arena in Stockholm,
Sweden on May 24. (AP) Manchester’s Jesse Lingard falls after making contact with Ajax’s Davinson Sanchez (left), during the Europa League final between Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United at the Friends Arena
in Stockholm, Sweden on May 24. (AP)
Shaun Payne, a 29-year-old United supporter, said Monday’s attack undoubtedly scarred the team, but he was optimistic that they would win.
“They have nothing to lose tonight. They’ll go for it,” he told AFP.
“It’ll provide extra motivation to represent the city and to hopefully bring the trophy back with us,” he says.
Rob Coppen, a 28-year-old Ajax fan from Amsterdam donning the team’s
“Obviously the events in Manchester has put a dampener on everything but hopefully we can win and bring the trophy back tonight.”
Security was tight at the arena as a SWAT team stood guard outside.
“We’ve already undertaken a lot of preparation, and with the way the world looks today this type of incident (Monday’s attack) is the kind of thing we have to prepare for. So it has been part of our planning all along,” Stockholm police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said.
Paul Pogba dedicated Manchester United’s Europa League title triumph on Wednesday to the 22 people killed in Monday’s terror attack in Manchester, saying: “We played for the people who died.”
An emotional evening in Stockholm began with a moment of silence and applause, in memory of those killed at a concert at Manchester Arena, before goals from Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan clinched a 2-0 victory over Ajax.
“These things are terrible all over the world, in London and in Paris,” said Pogba, who was also playing at the Stade de France on the night of the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.