Champions League: Liverpool fans cross Channel on speedboat after flight cancelled

With red flags waving, Billy Joel blaring and the French coastline coming into view, a group of Liverpool fans refused to allow any flight cancellations get between them and the Champions League final.

After his son’s friends’ easyJet flight to Paris was cancelled, Paddy OToole decided to take matters into his own hands by getting a rib boat across the Channel from Jersey.

With the help of his friend, Gary Brennan, the group of 12 set off in a Redbay Stormforce 950 straight to Saint-Malo to get to Paris in time for Liverpool’s Champions League showdown with Real Madrid. “Boss way to get to Paris,” tweeted OToole, who said they had even seen some dolphins en route.

As they approached land, video footage showed them playing the Billy Joel hit We Didn’t Start The Fire, and once they arrived in France they unfurled two Liverpool flags on the quayside.

They then got the train to Rennes before heading to Paris. But, having gone to such lengths, OToole said: “We haven’t got a ticket between us.

“My lad Patrick’s mates, Adam and Tom Dring, who are from Huyton, had their easyJet flight cancelled, so their dad rushed them down to Heathrow to try a get a flight but there was nothing. They got a flight to Jersey last minute and they met up with us and asked could we get them to France,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

“We felt sorry for the young lads so we had to do something.”

They were among tens of thousands of fans predicted to arrive in the French capital ahead of tonight’s final. As many as 60,000 Liverpool fans were predicted to arrive in Paris on Saturday by coach, train, boat and plane.