Giving the fans something to cheer about

IT WAS day two of the occupation of the beachhead which the Green Army had established for themselves in the outdoor bar in front of the Radisson Hotel in central Sofia.

The takeover had been entirely peaceful if overwhelming, beginning on the Friday afternoon and continuing long into the night. Where they slept, or even if they slept, I have no idea, but by the following morning, match day, there they were there again, gearing up for the big night ahead by, as The Clash would have it, drinking brew for breakfast.

And for lunch and afternoon tea. The temperatures soared and the shade receded but the revellers were not for moving, their only concession to the blistering sun the removal of green shirts so that pale white skin was soon turning a radioactive red. Viewed from afar, they must have looked, appropriately, like a huge, slightly tattered Bulgarian flag.