Ahead of the reported threats of violence from Italian "Ultras" at the game between Liverpool and Juventus tomorrow, the ugly side of Italian football support has shown itself tonight.
Inter Milan and AC Milan share a stadium, and tonight the Champions League quarter final second leg saw Inter as the official home team. With around 15 minutes to go, the score was 3-0 on aggregate (1-0 on the night) to AC Milan, when the referee disallowed what would have been an equaliser on the night. Cambiusso complained strongly to the referee who booked him.
At this point the flares started to be thrown onto the pitch from the Inter area – one hit the AC Milan keeper on the back of the head.
More and more flares were landing on the pitch, narrowly missing officials and players.
The most worrying aspect in the whole events were that police were not seen to be taking any action.
A few years back a Liverpool supporter held a similar flare to this in his hand, at Anfield, and was arrested for doing so. These flares would never be allowed into a stadium in the UK.
An attempt was made to restart the match, but it was later abandoned.