Day 15 - May 14 2003 - Forza Juve

Urbania is very much a Juventus town, kids wander around in their black and white striped shirts quite often, in fact the region of marche in which urbania finds itself is the only region that doesnt have a team in the italian first division, hasnt had one for some time but they do have some hjope that Ancona which is in seria b will get promoted this year.

Wednesday night was a big night for Juve tifosi, the second leg of the semi final against the fierce Real Madrid. Real had won the first leg 2-1 in spain and the return leg in Torino ha dbeen built up to incredible heights by the local pres and fans. AC Milan had qualified for the final the night before and so Juve were expected to rise to the occasion and make it an all Italian affair for the final in Manchester in a few weeks

But of course this isnt a sports column, as i will now prove... Juve won 3-1, rather triumphantly with 2 splendid goals and parried real's last ditch efforts to make it rhough to the final, forza Juve.

This piece is about getting to live one of those fairy tale evenings for any soccer fan, sitting with the fans in a small town which totally comes toa standstill for big games. We watched the game from one of those bars that are so small nobody knows their name,.. i asked the owner and even he wasnt 100% sure, but the concept of the big screen isnt alien to these guys so we sat or leaned in my case and watched the game unfold, the fans were hopeful but not arrogantly so... Real Madrid is a real powerhouse of a team and coming from behind was a tall order.

One of the great things about Football in Italy is that everyone talks about, including the chicks, and on a big night like this the crowd is mixed, guys girls, husbands wives kids, all together screaming, throwing their hands in the air.

Spirits were lifted early when froggy star Treseuget scored for Juve, an opportunistic but well taken poke past the keeper, the crowd went as they say in the classics quite ape shit, everyone leapt up and hugged anything, beers hit the floor there was even tears,.. and this was only the 10 minute mark. The excitement picked up with the 2nd and 3rd goals to the point where nobody seemed to mind that zizou managed to sneak out a bit of his own patented magic to keep the scoreline respectable for the spaniards.

Following the game we walked around the streets of Urbania waiting for the sreams of cars and vespas to descend on the city, horns blaring flags waving, we watched them stream down via Roma (every town has a via roma) and around the town square, people hung from windows clapping, very much looking forward to the final.

Post game we caught up with Danilo, the PR guy from the italian school, mad juve supporter, he tod us how to get to one of the small underground pubs in urbania ... what a find... its called the ''new inn'' which isnt really funny until you realise that it is actually in the basement of a 500 year old building... Danilo broke open a bottle of champagne, and the bar owner also shouted us a bottle of a sweet white which was great because it was feree... wonderful little place to which we will return to watch the final.