They are embarrassing in the eyes of die-hard football fans anyway.

Fair-weather spectators who leave their seats before the referee blows the whistle, when the game is supposedly over or their favorite team isn't playing well enough.

But now some early goers in Madrid have learned a bitter lesson - because of their impatience and dissatisfaction, they missed the decisive moments of a Champions League evening, which, thanks to its surprising turn, should develop into a magical night.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

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Because, given Real Madrid's 1-0 deficit in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals against Manchester City, they apparently no longer believed in progressing - and then at least didn't want to queue in the subway - numerous spectators left the Bernabeu early.

And should bitterly regret their decision.

Because the game tipped over in an almost inexplicable way.

Substitute Rodrygo equalized the 3-4 defeat in the first leg with two goals within a very short time (90th/90th + 1 minute) and still forced extra time, in which Karim Benzema (95th) finally scored a penalty for the winning goal and the Entry into the final against Liverpool on May 28 in Paris (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League).

After hearing the equalizer because of the effervescent cheering from the stadium and the news in the results ticker on their mobile phones, many fans wanted to go back to the stadium – but were not allowed to, as the Spanish newspaper “Marca” reported with reference to a corresponding regulation by the club .

And so the impatient, although they had paid a lot of money for their tickets, only had to watch as onlookers in front of the stadium as ear witnesses how the "Royal" still turned the game and pure ecstasy broke out in the stands.

Unfortunately without her.

Because of their time-saving mentality, those who left early missed the “greatest heroic story ever told” – at least according to “Marca”.

In the final in Paris, no one should leave the "Stade de France" prematurely - no matter how it is.