The day started brightly for Manchester United's travelling band of fans. About 4,600 of them descended on Barcelona yesterday for the club's second-leg quarterfinal tie against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League.
They sang and drank in the city's terrace bars and squares, including Placa Reial off La Rambla, before making their way to the Camp Nou stadium, several of them by rickshaw up Diagonal, the avenue that General Franco used to march his victorious nationalist troops into the city at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
Outside the stadium United supporters clustered in groups—in shorts and light replica shirts oblivious to the unseasonably cold evening weather—singing confidently to the tune of the Stone Roses about their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: "Ole's at the wheel/Tell me, how good does it feel?