Not sure how to post pics but ignore the 38,000 attendance figure that seems to be doing the rounds. It was more like 45-46k in all honesty. There were probably only around 30-32k in the stadium at kick-off as thousands were still outside trying to get in and fans were still getting to their seats 15-20 minutes in. Once everyone was in, the much maligned North Stand was full from my vantage point in the South Stand. The only significant empties were obviously the away end (fair fucks to the Leipzig fans who did travel as their official club trip cost 1199 Euros!), CB3 (the last section to go on sale), and some hospitality areas. As a comparison to my guesstimate of 45-46k, we only got 40k v Lyon 3 years ago for the opening group game and that was with a much bigger away following.
The atmosphere wasn’t THAT bad. Nothing to massively write home about but it has been worse at CL games. As well as 114/115/116, 110/111 were on good form too but there were also chants starting from elsewhere in the ground.
I’ve noticed that early leavers tend to be more of an issue at league games than CL games so it was a little surprising to see so many leave early last night.