Imagine: You travel halfway across the continent to watch your club play in one of the most ancient cities in western civilizations. Then you get pelted with fireworks and beat up by police for having the audacity to attend an away match. Such was the scenario for Ajax fans at the Athens Olympic Stadium as the Dutch side took on AEK Athens in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Ahead of the match, Ajax supporters — sequestered into a tiny corner of the stadium — had flares, fireworks and what appeared to be a firebomb of some sort thrown at them by AEK supporters. In response, the local police (in full riot gear) attacked the Ajax fans, because that makes sense.
Ajax-supporters worden bekogeld met vuurwerk #aekaja #ajax pic.twitter.com/hBUmTZbBHn
— Daniel Schoonenboom (@Schoonenboom) November 27, 2018
De ME slaat erop los in het vak met Ajax-fans #aekaja #ajax pic.twitter.com/hZsjnlgAWp
— Daniel Schoonenboom (@Schoonenboom) November 27, 2018
Warning, some of the blow images are graphic.
Disturbing scenes in Athens as an AEK fan throws a flare into the Ajax supporters pic.twitter.com/iavmmQjYcX
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 27, 2018
That was all before the match. At the start of the second half, a number of fireworks could be heard going off.
Given all the buffoonery that went down in Argentina over the weekend surrounding the Copa Libertadores final, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when fans in Athens act out as well.
But the police attacking the Ajax supporters like that seemed out of line when it was the AEK fans who seemed to instigate and escalate the incident. It's hard to tell exactly what caused the police to attack the Ajax fans, but it's hard to justify police attacking unarmed fans.
It was a massive contrast to the Sept. 19 meeting between the two in Amsterdam, when supporters were serenaded by Bob Marley tunes at the Johan Cruyff Arena. It's always incredible that humans can't get along over a simple soccer match, a sporting event meant for fun.
On the pitch, the action was a little more subdued, though Dmytro Chigrynskiy was bloodied himself by a clash of heads and had to have staples applied to his scalp on the pitch.
Ajax fans had it just about as bad as Dmytro Chigrynskiy. Photo: Screenshot: TNT
Ultimately, Ajax won 2-0 to wrap up qualification for the Round of 16 for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Dusan Tadic scored twice, the first on a penalty kick that saw Marko Livaja sent off for a second yellow.
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