Real Madrid v AS Roma: Paper planes the crowd highlight

Some of the biggest names in international soccer, in Melbourne - it had the mouths of sport fans watering.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale going head to head with Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi, to name just a couple. Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, to name some more.

Who would have thought, then, that on the night some of the biggest cheers from the crowd would be for paper planes?

Or that at full time, the 80,000-strong crowd would be booing?

On Saturday night Real Madrid and AS Roma kicked off the Australian edition of the International Champions Cup, playing out a nil-all draw before Roma won on penalties.

Before the game, the fans were ready to be thrilled. The cheers when the teams came out onto the pitch to warm up were some of the loudest of the night. But the game never really lived up to the hype.

Former Socceroo Ned Zelic declared it the "cbf Cup".

In fact, midway through the second half, attention in the stands turned to who could get their paper planes from the top deck of the MCG onto the pitch.

The reaction on social media reflected the reaction of those at the ground.

At least two paper planes made a successful on-field landing, to the delight of the crowd.

Some on social media were unimpressed that one of the biggest names in the game, Francesco Totti, was subbed off after barely half an hour - Melbourne Victory veteran Archie Thompson among them.

"Found my new [role] for Victory," he tweeted. "Going to call it the TOTTI. 32 minutes job done."

But not everyone was unhappy with the showing on the pitch.

"Last night I looked out onto the pitch and I saw Ramos and Totti right there, standing next to each other. That was my evening," soccer fan Tatiyana tweeted.

Disappointment, though, was obvious. With both sides allowed more substitutions than in a regular game, half time saw the teams make big changes, including the departure of drawcard's like Ronaldo, Roma's Gervinho and De Rossi, with no fanfare at all. Similarly, the players who were brought on at half time were not announced.

And there was a lack of the atmosphere that can usually be found at soccer games, especially a game between such well-supported clubs as Real Madrid and Roma.

With no active support, chanting or singing, and seemingly no sections of dedicated supporter groups, what resulted was a sort of loud hum of indistinct chatter, interrupted by group exclamations when Ronaldo or the like got the ball in an attacking position.

And of course, when fans from the top level of the stadium got their paper planes to make it onto the pitch.

When the full-time whistle blew, the majority of the crowd found voice again, seemingly booing the goalless result, before the announcement of the penalty shootout drew cheers. Until that point, the only goals the spectators had enjoyed came during the half-time entertainment, when young players from Victorian sides took part in a goalshooting competition.

Though it was a lacklustre start to the Cup, there are still more games to come in the round robin tournament. On Tuesday, Roma face Manchester City and on Friday, Real Madrid go head-to-head with City.

Fans heading to those games will be hoping that paper planes aren't the main attraction (or, perhaps, brushing up on their paper-folding skills).