FC Twente fans take over empty Manchester City seats before Man United Europa League game

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FC Twente fans full empty Man City seats

The FC Twente fans are in town for their side’s Europa League meeting against Manchester United this week but they arrived a bit earlier than some expected and decided to catch another game beforehand: the EFL match between Man City and Watford.

Yes, that same, tired old running joke seems to have rung true – at least this time.

It’s no secret that League Cup matches are much less well-attended than Premier League fixtures or European nights, so it was never going to be a sell-out crowd at the Etihad Stadium on this occasion – much to the delight of the Dutch supporters clearly enjoying an away day, or two.

Numerous clips were shared online and quickly went viral, with plenty of City supporters clearly amused by sudden pockets of Twente fans sprouting up around the ground.

As you’d expect, this was lapped up by other football fans online, especially those of rival clubs.

All the usual suspects were rolled out: “At least they may slightly fill the Etihad for once”, “It was still half empty”, “You might finally hear a song” and so on.

To play devil’s advocate and do some Man City myth-busting for a moment, the stadium’s capacity is just over 53,000 and their attendances haven’t dropped below 50,000 once yet this season, the previous match recording a footfall of 52,846 for the game against Arsenal.

In fact, the red half of Manchester had a big scandal late last year when an estimated 2,000 Galatasaray fans ended up watching from within the home sections inside Old Trafford.

All that being said, there were plenty of Blues who were much enthused about the delegation of Twente fans’ presence in the ground.

You have to give it to them though, they made plenty of noise.

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Man City went on to win the game 2-1 thanks to goals from Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes, as well as more minutes for youngsters James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly, who both started the game.

There was also a debut for 16-year-old debutant Kaden Braithwaite as they cruised fairly comfortably into the next round.

As for Twente, the Eredivisie side kicks off against compatriot Erik ten Hag’s side on Wednesday evening as Man United get the opening game of this year’s European campaign underway at 8pm – the fans have already taken over Shambles Square in the city and will soon be marching on Old Trafford.

Meanwhile, you can watch back the highlights of Man City vs Watford in the third round of the Carabao Cup down below:

Onto the next one.

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Featured Images — @foolsgold_/@rodrisgrealish (via X)