Liverpool and Fulham were today setting off on epic overland journeys to Madrid and Hamburg respectively for Thursday's Europa League semi-finals.
UEFA have confirmed the first-leg clashes against Atletico Madrid and Hamburg will go ahead as planned.
The continuing problems caused by the ash spewing from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull will see the Reds take three separate trains to the south of France before a short flight to Madrid. The marathon trip includes an overnight stop-over in Paris tonight.
Liverpool officials hope other options for flying to Madrid from the middle of France may become available but the current plan is to travel by train to London, take the Eurostar to Paris and then tomorrow morning a TGV train to Bordeaux and fly from there across the Pyrenees to Madrid.
The journey will begin with a coach trip from Liverpool's training ground to a station in the north-west making it a real planes, trains and automobiles experience.
The Cottagers, who are chasing their first European final in history, had hoped to fly by private jet to Hamburg tomorrow morning but they have now admitted defeat and will revert to plan B.
The team will now board a luxurious coach to Folkestone this morning, where they will catch the Eurotunnel to Calais before driving to Hamburg on the same coach. It is anticipated that the approximate 600-mile journey will take between 10 and 12 hours to complete.
A club spokesman said this morning: "I can confirm that we will be travelling to Germany some time today in line with our contingency plans."
With airports set to close again this afternoon, it is unlikely the Fulham supporters who have bought airline tickets to Germany will be able to fly to Hamburg.
Around 2,500 of them have tickets to the game and many have already started making plans to travel by land.
UEFA revealed this morning both last-four games would take place as scheduled.
They said in a statement: "UEFA is continuing to closely monitor the travel situation throughout Europe and beyond, in an effort to confirm the staging of a number of matches that are due to take place this week in UEFA competitions.
"Regarding the UEFA Europa League semi-final first-leg matches scheduled for Thursday 22 April, between Club Atletico de Madrid and Liverpool FC, and Hamburg SV and Fulham FC, it is planned that both games will go ahead as normal."
Both the Champions League matches between Inter Milan and Barcelona tonight and Bayern Munich v Lyon tomorrow are going ahead with the visiting teams travelling overland by coach.
UEFA has postponed Sunday's Women's Champions League semi-final decider between Swedish side Umea IK and Lyon, however.
Celtic's friendly against AZ Alkmaar at Parkhead tomorrow night has also been postponed.
Celtic said in a statement: "The club is hoping to rearrange the fixture against the Dutch side for the near future."
In cricket, Essex will be without New Zealand fast bowler Chris Martin for their LV= County Championship match against Lancashire because of the travel disruption.
The 35-year-old's arrival was put back owing to a delay in the processing of his visa and the situation has been compounded by the problems affecting air travel.
Martin is not now expected to be available until next week.
Essex first team XI head coach Paul Grayson said: "It's disappointing for both ourselves and the player but unfortunately, we can't do anything about the situation.
"But we have to put that aside; we are looking forward to a good game with Lancashire and we go into that match full of self-belief."