Every Liverpool fan you talk to has the same question: “Got any tickets going? A spare accreditation? Go on, you’re a journalist. You must have.”

I flew out to Athens this morning from Berlin and the flight was packed with Liverpool fans, many coming to the final via extremely circuitous routes.

My favourite story came from John from South Wales, who left his wife on holiday in Palma de Mallorca to take an early morning flight to Berlin, and then on to Greece. He’ll rejoin his wife (assuming she’ll have him) the morning after the final. “It’ll be a good holiday as long as Liverpool win,” he said.

John was lucky enough to have a ticket, but his mates were travelling more in hope than expectation of seeing the game live. Richie Five Times (a London Scouse exile, soon to change his nickname to Richie Six Times, he hopes) had put together a trip from London to Berlin Schoenefeld, a mad dash across the city to Tegel and then on to the same Athens flight.

“It’s worked out no trouble. Fantastic,” said Richie, who was wearing a number 4 Shankly shirt with the former Liverpool manager’s famous quote about socialism. “If you haven’t got a ticket, you don’t have a map of the drainage system at the stadium, do you?” he added.

There were no AC Milan fans I could see on the flight, and precious few at the airport when I arrived. I met more and more Liverpool fans, all with the same question about tickets.

“We thought we’d get tickets, cos we’ve been season ticket holders for the last 10 years, so we were in a catch-22 situation about buying flights,” said Gareth Topping, a builder from Devon who had travelled with his brother, Graham, via London and a 4 a.m. flight from Munich. “There’s still hope, though.”

Now it’s off in to town to see what the atmosphere’s like. “If it’s half as good as Istanbul it’ll be special,” said Gareth.

The fans here at the airport are already humming “Ring of Fire”, the Johnny Cash song that became the unofficial theme song of Liverpool’s run to the final in 2005. Something tells me I’ll be hearing a lot more of that.

UPDATE: With 24 hours to go until kick-off, Liverpool fans seem intent on recreating a bit of Istanbul in Athens. Walking around the central Syntagma Square, the place is teeming with red shirts, just like in Taksim Square the night before the final in Istanbul two years ago.

Supporters are not out in quite such force, which is probably because so many have been forced to go a long way out of town to find hotel rooms.

There’s a lot of singing and plenty of beer being drunk, while flashing Liverpool badges and hats bought from street vendors seem to be the accessories to have. For now, Milan fans remain few on the ground. More later.

Kevin Fylan, Athens