At Milan’s Naviglio Grande, where the canal looked just like the River Tyne with black and white flags adorning the bridges and 3,000 tenors singing about Sandro Tonali, you’ll find ‘the smallest bar in the world’ hidden between the stone walls .
There are only four seats at Backdoor 43. In the cobblestone streets outside, meanwhile, those crowds of would-be gamblers. The combination served to illustrate the excitement surrounding Newcastle’s return to the Champions League after a twenty-year absence – as the battle for match tickets was as frenzied as the battle for one of those bar stools.
Taxis are just as scarce here. A railway strike combined with an electrical storm and the chaos of Fashion Week means that foot has often been the only means of transport. However, the Toon Army will be happy to march the five miles from the city center to the San Siro if the travel chaos continues today.
In 2003, when they last played away from home in this competition, it was here. There were 12,000 visiting fans for a 2-2 draw with Inter in which Alan Shearer scored twice.
It was an iconic evening in the club’s history and on Monday evening the stories of that time were retold in the bars on the canal. Once they stopped sliding across flooded sidewalks with their bellies bare.
Newcastle fans are in high spirits as they party in Milan ahead of the return of the Champions League
The Toon Army soaked up the atmosphere on the streets as they prepared to face AC Milan
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“There was an alcohol ban that day, so we all gathered in a square near the station, where some ‘local entrepreneurs’ threw crates of beer out of the back of a van,” Chris Johnson, 38, remembers. “We were kicking footballs. over and it was a lot of fun, no problems at all.
‘That was different when we entered the San Siro. I had a terrible view, so I went to some free seats behind the goal, wondering why they were free. We soon realized it. Within a few minutes it all rained down on us, coins, bottles, torches, p***. The Milan fans were above us, it was outrageous.
‘Not that we cared when Shearer scored in our side to make it 2-1. The whole place erupted. We thought we were through to the quarter-finals. Inter equalized and that killed us, in the next game we went out. I never thought then that it would be twenty years before another away trip to the Champions League would take place. It felt like the beginning of something, not the end.”
And yet here Newcastle is, ordinary. The storms over northern Italy delayed their arrival in Milan by almost three hours. Their decision to train at home to avoid spying eyes at the San Siro backfired and disrupted preparations on the eve of such a historic match. Eddie Howe was two hours late for his press conference and sources say the club is likely to receive a UEFA warning before a ball is even kicked.
Howe should have been talking about his first ever appearance in a Champions League match when he finally arrived at his media briefing at San Siro at 9pm last night.
“I believe there was a weather problem,” he said. “We sat on the runway for a long time. It can happen. It was a long day, an early start and a late finish. It is a slightly later arrival time than we would have liked for the players, but that is not a problem.’
Milan’s build-up was also not without problems. Manager Stefano Pioli felt the glare of the cameras as a power outage left him in darkness at the club’s training ground. Perhaps it was a welcome relief for him, given the questions surrounding Milan’s 5-1 defeat to Inter on Saturday.
On Monday the pink pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport talked about ‘Milan in crisis’. “The derby risks having a devastating psychological effect,” they noted. ‘Their speed and physicality suddenly disappeared against Inter.’
Newcastle’s decision to train at home and avoid spy eyes at the San Siro backfired as they were delayed by almost three hours in Milan
Eddie Howe and his players were delayed due to a storm that disrupted their preparations
Howe should have spoken about his first ever Champions League match and the club could be punished after he arrived two hours late to his press conference
But Newcastle was not spared either. “They are less scary than on the day of the draw,” the editors said. ‘They suffer too. They have lost to Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton, which proves that they are not worthy of the first pot.’
They were certainly complimentary of the returning Tonali, who left Milan for £52 million this summer. The newspaper labeled him Newcastle’s danger man.
In the cult Geordie TV show Auf Wierdersehen Pet, the character Oz, played by Jimmy Nail, is miffed when he learns that his estranged wife has a new Italian boyfriend from Milan.
“Who is this Sandro gadgie?” he says in a video that made the rounds on social media this week. Forty years later, it is the men of Tyneside who are now swooning over Milan’s Sandro, as their favorite canalside song testified.
However, Tonali arrived with Howe for the press conference at San Siro and revealed that the transition has not been easy.
Newcastle’s new signing Sandro Tonali has spoken about his struggles to adapt to life on Tyneside
“This summer was hard,” he said. ‘It wasn’t easy finding my place at Newcastle. I was a little lost at first, but I had so much help from everyone.”
Not so helpful was his new teammates’ advice to take his family to a Wetherspoons for tea, and that was a lighter moment here after talking about his early struggles.
“After the match against Aston Villa (won 5-1 on the opening day) I asked about places for a night out with my family,” Tonali revealed. ‘I didn’t get the answer I expected. Normally you don’t go to the pub with your family, but it was fun.’
As those on the banks of the canal discovered on Monday night, pubs sure are fun. But seeing their team play in the Champions League after a 20-year absence is the real reason to cheer.
The Group of Death next to PSG and Dortmund may be that, but for Newcastle’s followers they suddenly feel alive again.