This Wednesday at 9pm (CET), Paris Saint-Germain take on Aston Villa at the Parc des Princes in the quarter-finals of the Champions League 2024-2025 (return on March 15). According to L’Equipe, the English club will see 2,000 fans take their seats in the stands. There will also be a large out-of-stadium crowd, so a certain amount of caution is called for.
“Around 2,000 Villa fans are expected in the visitors’ park.
“In terms of security, the match does not inspire any particular fears in the public authorities. No known antagonism between the two clubs and their supporters was reported at Monday’s security meeting.
Around 2,000 Villa fans are expected to be in the visitors’ car park at the Porte de Saint-Cloud stadium, with a further 1,000 expected to be in Paris without tickets, watching the match from bars around the city. Among this English delegation, around 150 fans are considered to be at risk by the police.
“It was the presence of supporters without match tickets that prompted the authorities to classify this match at such a level.”
Hence the classification by the Division nationale de lutte contre le hooliganisme (DNLH) of the match at level 3, i.e. there is a “risk of public order disturbances linked to a dispute between supporters or to the habitual behavior of certain supporters”.
It was the presence of supporters without match tickets that prompted the authorities to classify the match at this level. In addition, five forces of mobile gendarmes or CRS have been requested by the Paris police prefecture.”
As far as the stands are concerned, it’s a good turnout, as always for these European matches. We’re sure that Aston Villa fans will be there to make the most of the moment, and to push the team as hard as they can to pull off a great coup in Paris.
The atmosphere should be great, with the match no doubt on a par with such an evening. We’re counting on the Parisian fans to make sure their voices are heard throughout the match.
As for the situation outside the stadium, we can only hope that there will be no particular incidents. It’s harder to keep an eye on the streets, logically enough. But there’s not normally any particular tension between fan groups. However, we must be careful not to provoke. There’s no point in taking any risks, when the main thing is to enjoy the evening. Chambering should be possible, within certain limits.
