In the region of 5,000 Celtic fans made the trip to East Germany to watch their side’s Europa League meeting with RB Leipzig last night, but some were left infuriated as they missed up to 25 minutes of the match because some entrances were blocked, as reported by the Scottish Sun.
Thousands of Celtic’s faithful gathered together in Market Square to partake in a pre-organised march leading to the Red Bull Arena. Fans state that they arrived an hour before kick-off with plenty of time to enter and take their seat. However, the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung contradict this by saying the fans had arrived late to the gate.
This lead to chaotic scenes as around 2,000 fans stood outside the away entrance awaiting their turn to enter, with video footage showing people slowly filtering through the six open turnstiles that had a slow self-scanning process. Some even began to fear for their safety as space became minimal and when complaints were made, German police merely laughed it off. One fan said:
“Fans were crushed as they waited. Loads complained to police who simply laughed in our faces. An utter disgrace. […] It’s the first time watching Celtic that I have genuinely feared for my safety.” [Scottish Sun]
Upon entering the stadium, the chaos didn’t come to a halt. It has been said that there was no one to direct the fans towards their seats, therefore it was a free-for-all as everyone made their way to the front of the stand. This then lead to an announcement being made over the tannoy at half-time requesting that the stairways be cleared.
In addition, there was a fear that the kick-off would be delayed as the pyrotechnics let off by the travelling support covered the pitch with a mist. In the end, it wasn’t and RB Leipzig went on to achieve a 2-0 win and create a three-point gap between themselves and their opposition ahead of their meeting at Celtic Park in a fortnight’s time.
