AFC Champions League: Kashima Antlers reach semi-final after beating Tianjin Quanjian but Macau is the real winner
Chinese Super League and J. League sides turn out in force as locals embrace quality football usually lacking at Olympic Stadium
The seventh best team in Japan beating the 10th best team in China 3-0 in a stadium over 2,000 kilometres away from the “home” team sounds bad on paper but those numbers do not tell the whole story of Tianjin Quanjian v Kashima Antlers in Macau’s Olympic Stadium.
About 5,000 tickets for Tuesday night’s game were given out to locals last Saturday by the Macau FA and they were snapped up within two hours.
That meant the biggest crowd for a game in Macau in quite some time, with the stadium having to open all its gates rather than the usual one or two in the main stand and one opposite for domestic league games.
Hundreds of men, women and children milled around in the hours before kick-off, swelling as the minutes ticked down to the AFC Champions League making its Macau debut.
There was a World Cup vibe as many seemed to be neutrals, sporting football shirts from around the world.
The expected Barcelona, Juventus and English Premier League giants mixed with Nigeria’s Russia 2018 home kit, Independiente, Atletico Mineiro, Leicester City, Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Guangzhou R&F.