A group of Galatasaray fans were caught trying to dig their way into Schalke's Veltins-Arena on Monday night in a bid to see their team training in preparation for Tuesday night's Champions League encounter
Stewards discovered them trying to create a passage under a perimeter fence using only their bare hands, but with the ground frozen, they did not get very far.
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“It’s true, after their final training session, our Turkish friends were caught trying to dig a way into the stadium through the frozen ground,” said Schalke’s director of sport Horst Heldt to Sky television.
“The stewards prevented them from doing so,” he added.
The game was a major event in Gelsenkirchen, which has a large resident Turkish population, with many Galatasaray shirts intermingled among the Royal Blue spectators.
Around 20,000 people with Turkish origin live in the city, which has a total population of 260,000. Despite the lack of separation between the fans, no major disturbances were reported.