The UEFA Europa League match between Leicester City and Legia Warsaw was marred by ugly scenes in the stands as visiting clashed with police in what observers claimed was a planned attack which made use of a smokescreen.
Legia fans packed the away section at Leicester’s King Power stadium for Thursday night’s encounter, and during the action set off red flames en masse.
That created a wall of smoke and appeared to be the signal for dozens of them to wade across seats which were covered in tarpaulin to help segregate supporters.
Attempting to breach the thin dividing line, hooligans were seen trading blows with police before reinforcements in riot gear moved in to quell the violence.
The unsavory scenes were captured from fans inside the stadium – with numerous reporters such as Henry Winter of The Times suggesting that the smokescreen from the flares had provided cover for the attack.
Online, one football fan perversely dubbed it a "hooligan masterclass" from the Legia thugs.
Local police later reported that officers had been hurt in the fracas.
“Long day/night. A number of arrests have been made of away supporters during the evening, some officers have been injured,” read a tweet.
“Thanks to you LCFC fans for your support, further updates will follow in the coming days.”
On the pitch, Leicester picked up a 3-1 win which moved them to the top of Group C, one point ahead of Spartak Moscow and Napoli ahead of the final round of group-stage matches in two weeks’ time.
Leicester travel to Napoli on December 9 while Spartak take on Legia in Warsaw at the same time. All four teams in the group are in with a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.