Around 35,000 turn up to watch Bhutia`s farewell match

New Delhi: The fans in the national capital on Tuesday gave a big response to former captain Bhaichung Bhutia`s farewell exhibition match between India and German giants Bayern Munich with spectators thronging the Jawaharlal Stadium in huge numbers to witness the international football and country`s stars in action.

Around 35,000 spectators watched the match which featured the likes of German national team captain Philipp Lahm, Arjen Robben, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez, besides Bhaichung and his Indian team-mates at the floodlit 60,000-capacity Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The biggest ever crowd was witnessed in Delhi for a football event with all the roads of the Capital looked like leading to Jawaharlal Stadium. Since early in the day, fans queued up at the ticket counter outside the stadium to buy tickets while those who booked online came to collect their tickets. By evening there were long serpentine queues in front of the ticket counter. There was chaos-like situation just before the match started with the lone counter failing to cater to the large ticket seekers. The roads around the stadium saw traffic snarls due to the movement of spectators. Inside the stadium, the fans cheered whenever the Indian players -- especially Bhaichung -- touched the ball which were though few and far between as the Bayern Munich players kept possession for most of the time. The fans chanted `India` and `Bhutia` with some waving the tri-colour though their team had very few attacking moves. PTI