Football
Glenn Price, Liverpool correspondent 6y

Liverpool fans charged £73 for Roma Champions League clash at Stadio Olimpico

Liverpool fans will have to pay £73 to attend the second leg of their Champions League semifinal against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico next month.

Roma have allocated 5,000 tickets, all at the same price, to Liverpool, with prices for home fans ranging between £56 and £139.

Liverpool supporters who have attended at least one European away fixture this season or during the 2015-16 Europa League campaign are guaranteed a ticket before sale is extended to season ticket holders.

Roma fans will be charged £48 for tickets to the first leg at Anfield on April 24.

"Roma's price point for the second leg just stinks of opportunism and it should be challenged," Gareth Roberts, from Liverpool supporter podcast The Anfield Wrap, told ESPN FC. "Football fans again and again have to stomach the ramping up of prices -- from travel costs, to food and drink.

"We know Chelsea have gone there earlier in the season and paid £45. We know Roma fans will come to Merseyside and pay a similar figure. Year after year it seems the walls close in on ordinary supporters who just want to follow their team.

"I'd like to see Liverpool challenge this price on behalf of supporters and it's also high time UEFA introduced some rules and regulations around pricing that actually have some teeth and make clubs think twice about ripping off visiting supporters."

ESPN FC has approached Liverpool and UEFA for comment.

For the return fixture, on May 2, Roma have requested that the names of Liverpool fans are printed on their tickets, common practice in Italian football.

"ID will be requested at the turnstiles when accessing the stadium and checked against the name on the ticket. Please do not attempt to remove the name from the ticket as you may be refused entry," a statement on Liverpool's official website said.

Meanwhile, almost 1,000 Roma fans queued outside the club store in the Italian capital overnight on Tuesday to be among the first to secure tickets for the second leg.

Tickets were due to go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, but many opted to wait overnight to make sure they were not disappointed.

"I've got three generations of Roma fans at home and I hope we can gain our revenge [for defeat to Liverpool in the 1984 final] in this game," 85-year-old Vincenzo Ricci, among those waiting through the night, told Roma News.

The first fans started to arrive at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, with police providing coffee for those who had decided to spend the night queueing for tickets to the biggest Roma fixture since the 1984 final, which was played at the Stadio Olimpico.

Memories of that night, when Roma were beaten on penalties, meant one fan decided not to join those waiting.

"I'm not going this time," Marco Pulice said. "I'm superstitious. That Roma was really strong, whereas this time we're the underdogs.

"I just hope we can catch out their defence, which is their weakest point."

Information from ESPN FC's Italy correspondent Ben Gladwell was used in this report.

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