There were tears even before the match started and this wasn’t because we’d seen Gary Neville picked in the starting line up. But we’ll get to that later.

This was the 1st leg of a Round of 16 Champions League match against a team United were expected to beat easily over the 2 legs. Lille were resurgent, by their standards (in February 2007) , under manager Claude Puel and with (now) well known names such as Yohan Cabaye, Peter Odemwinge and Mathieu Debuchy in their team.

Me, my brother and our pal JB (a man who snored so loud the people in the hotel room next door complained about it) travelled to Lille by Eurostar for a wintery away trip in Northern France. As we headed to the Gastronomic centre of Europe we felt we needed to up our snack game. So this meant M&S sausage rolls, laughing cow cheese-spread sandwiches and warm cans of Fosters to enjoy on the train across the channel.

The next morning with a sore head and a parched mouth we headed to the local Carrefour to stock up on midi bottles of Kronenbourg, baguettes and some smelly French cheeses. Our hotel room overlooked the main square so we watched with excitement as a student march was met with chants of ‘get to work you lazy twats’. Later in the day local French hooligans tried to attack a big group of reds in the bar below. There’s a video in the bowels of YouTube somewhere which shows plain clothes policemen jump up, don their identity armbands and take the offending Frenchmen away, much to the cheers of the away contingent.

We arrived into Lille, after a 7 hour journey, the evening before the game. As many euro away veterans will attest the night before the game is often better than game day itself. Le Vin did flow as we met up with the fellow reds wrapped up against the winter breeze that whistled through the Flemish style streets of Lille. With no Irish bar in sight we holed up in the more cosy and salubrious bars off the main square, drinking til the early hours with reds and locals alike. We learnt the new Henrik Larsson song when the song starter sang it 30 times in a row until everyone knew the words. All was friendly in the bars, and there was no sign of trouble, yet.

As Lille’s ground was not up to UEFA standards the game was being played at the Stade Felix Boleart in the nearby town of Lens. As darkness fell the mass of reds (around 2000 of us) were herded onto one of the worst trains I have ever used, to take us on the 1 hour journey to the ground. The SNCF in this case could have stood for ‘Should Not Carry Fans’. Still at least it was free.

As is typical of Mediterranean countries the policing and organisation was dangerously poor. After walking passed rows of baton-wielding riot police and having our tickets checked numerous times we were all filed through a single narrow entrance into the away end. This also happened to be where the snack bar was. As people tried in vain to avoid the mid match hangover by buying what they didn’t realise was ‘sans alcohol biere’ the numbers in that area gradually built up. There were no stewards in the away section either so everyone was now congregating in the first paddock, despite there being loads of space further along the terrace. Eventually panic kicked in and some reds attempted to avoid the melee by scaling the fences used to keep fans off the pitch. Typically, instead of helping the stricken fans the riot police defaulted to ‘Ze English Hooligans mode’ and fired rounds of tear gas indiscriminately into the away end. Everyone was crying, spluttering and trying in vain to avoid the noxious gas. That was everyone except my brother who stood calmly wondering what everyone was reacting to, seemingly he was immune to tear gas!

The game itself will be best remembered for Ryan Gigg’s late winner from a quickly taken free kick that was past the Lille goalkeeper before he and his wall was ready. The reaction of the French coaching staff was to order his players off the field. Despite the goal being given (no rules had been broken) the Lille players, whistling fans and their moronic manager protested for a good 10 minutes before the officials persuaded them to go back on, or else the game be abandoned. The atmosphere for the remaining minutes was the most fervent it had been all night, but United held on to take a vital away goal lead back to Manchester.

After the game we were kept back in the ground for a good 45 minutes as we chanted about the French Police being not very nice people. However the affects of being alcohol free since we left Lille 4 hours earlier and the tear gassing meant the dreaded same day waking hangover kicked in. Our spirit was broken as we were dumped back to Lille after midnight. The town and all its bars were closed down by the time we returned anyway so it was time for bed after a hectic day. Sleep, however would be at a premium for us AND the people in the next room due to our friend JB making more noise than the rattling train we had taken earlier that day.

You can read the BBC Sport match report Here