With prices ranging from astronomical to downright ruinous, I haven’t been able to find anyone who’s actually bought a Champions League final ticket from a tout.

English fans I spoke to on the morning of the match said they’d been offered tickets for 5,000 euros apiece, while I saw one Italian supporter trying to sell his for 3,000 euros. That’s obviously well out of the range of most fans and many are planning to go down to the stadium and hope for prices to drop dramatically as kick-off time approaches. Let’s see if the law of supply and demand holds out.

“No one’s going to pay the sort of money being talked about,” said Carl Drinkwater from Clitheroe, Lancashire, who like many season-ticket holders booked flights in the full expectation of getting a ticket, only to be disappointed .”The sad thing is I’ve heard they were selling returned tickets back at Anfield to anyone who could prove they had a flight.”

Liverpool fans are nothing if not resourceful and there was one man on the street running off from Syntagma Square busking Folsom Prison Blues with a sign out asking for a ticket in his guitar case instead of money.

It’s meant I can’t get Johnny Cash out of my mind, with everyone signing “De de de de de de de de” to the tune of Ring of Fire at the slightest provocation. Does that mean the Man in Black (Herbert Fandel, in this case) is going to be decisive?

The rain was bucketing down in the early afternoon and I met a bunch of Liverpool and Milan fans sheltering from the weather in one city-centre cafe, happily firing off songs back and forth. “It’ll be 2-0 tonight, no problem,” one of the Milan fans told me. “Kaka and Seedorf.” His friend added: “But if we’re winning 3-0 at half-time, we’re all going to be nervous.”

More later when I get to the stadium but for now, I’ve been wondering what puns we can expect in the media reports from the final. Will it be a case of Liverpool’s Greek tragedy?  A ‘eureka’ moment from Kaka? One of the captains holding aloft the Grecian urn? And I’m sure we’ll read about one of the defences bearing gifts. Can you think of any more?

UPDATE: Was absolute chaos getting from the city centre to the stadium, with Liverpool fans jammed on to the trains. So where were all the Milan fans? At the stadium, it seems, with Milan fans for the moment making much more noise than the Reds.

As my colleague Karolos Grohmann reports, 65 people were arrested on the spot when their tickets turned out to be forgeries. There were quite a few fans trying more (ahem) direct ways in without tickets. One or two managed to jump the outside perimeter around three hours before kick-off just outside the station but they were quickly stopped.

I’ll be back with some thoughts after the game.

Kevin Fylan, Athens