With red flags waving, Billy Joel ringing and the French coast in sight, a group of Liverpool fans refused to allow flight cancellations between them and the Champions League final.
After her son’s friends’ easyJet flight to Paris was canceled, Paddy OToole decided to take her own hands with a boat dotted across the Canal from Jersey.
With the help of his friend Gary Brennan, the group of 12 set off on a Redbay Stormforce 950 directly to Saint-Malo to reach Paris in time for Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid. “The boss’s way to get to Paris,” tweeted OToole, who said they had even seen some dolphins on the way.
As they approached the ground, video footage showed them playing Billy Joel’s hit We Didn’t Start The Fire, and once they arrived in France they unfurled two Liverpool flags on the dock.
They then took the train to Rennes before leaving for Paris. But after so much time, OToole said, “We don’t have any tickets between us.
“My son Patrick’s classmates Adam and Tom Dring, who are from Huyton, had their easyJet flight canceled, so their father rushed them to Heathrow to try to catch a flight, but there was nothing. They took a flight to Jersey at the last minute and met with us and asked if we could take them to France, “he told the Liverpool Echo.
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter, every weekday morning at 7:00 BST
“We were sorry guys, so we had to do something.”
They were among the tens of thousands of fans expected to arrive in the French capital before tonight’s final. About 60,000 Liverpool fans are expected to arrive in Paris on Saturday by coach, train, boat and plane.