We know England’s travelling supporters don’t have the greatest reputation in the world game – but in the events in Marseille over the last few days, they genuinely seem to have been the victims rather than the aggressors.
Joe Tyrrell, who is a Liverpool fan from Woolton on Merseyside, has been telling the Echo about what he saw. According to him, it’s a “miracle” that no fans were killed.
He describes how Russian fans descended on a square where England fans were drinking peacefully, saying they brought unopened crates of beer specifically to use as missiles.
“They were out to kill people, there were five or six of them with crates or boxes of beer, unopened.
“They were passing the guys at the front bottles to go and throw and then they were heading back for more,” he said.
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“The guy I helped took a full bottle to the face, he was covered in beer as well as blood.
“After he was out cold I saw 15 Russians kicking and stamping on his head as he was unconscious. They were even taking a run-up.
“It’s a miracle no one was killed – it really is. When we started dragging him away, I thought he was dead.
“It was just horrendous. They were hell-bent on causing as much serious injury as possible.”
It really sounds absolutely shocking. We can only hope there are no further incidents during the championships.