The ugly side of English football briefly showed its face last night just yards from the British embassy in Moscow.

The Times watched as a group of raucous Chelsea fans threw Nazi salutes, shouted "Sieg Heil" and sang "kill the jews" as startled staff looked on at the Tinkoff bar opposite the embassy last night. The bar had been designated as a base for Chelsea supporters and was decked out with team colours.

The chanting was apparently aimed at North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, but fans appeared ignorant of the fact that both Chelsea's bilionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich and team manager Avram Grant are Jewish.

Fighting later broke out outside the bar, according to Interfax news agency, which said that a group of Russians had attacked English fans shortly before midnight. There were no reported arrests.

The incident was the only sour moment in a remarkably good-humoured atmosphere in Moscow as more than 40,000 fans poured into the city for tonight's all-English Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Hundreds of supporters of both teams mingled happily at the Uefa fans' village on Red Square today as eager Russian fans sought them out to pose for photographs together. Fans in red and blue filled the terrace cafes alongside the square, drinking beer and singing team songs.

There was a noticeably larger police presence on the square and around the city's streets, but so far no reports of any trouble. A spokesman said: "The police do not have any reports of incidents involving football fans and we hope that everything will be fine tonight."

A light rain falling on Moscow failed to dampen the spirits of a group of United fans from Whitehaven who arrived on charter flight from Manchester. One of the group, Chris Fry, was wearing a Chelsea shirt.

"I was the only Chelsea fan on an official Manchester United trip. There were 300 United suporters on the plane and me with my mates," he said. "The Russians don't smile much but everyone has been very friendly. Chelsea and Manchester respect each other so there's a great atmosphere here."

Dean Sewell, a United fan from Workington, said: "I've had no sleep for 25 hours but plenty to drink and we're having a great time. It's not about Chelsea or Man United but English football. Everybody's behaving themselves."

Russian organisers have opened fan zones for United and Chelsea fans at the Luzhniki stadium where thousands of police, including the feared OMON riot squads, will be on duty during the game.

President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are not expected to attend the match. There was speculation too that there may be empty seats at the 69,500-capacity stadium as fans with tickets in England have struggled with the cost of getting to Moscow.

One person who will be there is Andrei Lugovoy, the man wanted by Britain for the murder of the dissident former spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006. The incident triggered the worst crisis in Anglo-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War.

Mr Lugovoi, now a member of the Russian parliament, will be cheering on Chelsea apparently. His spokeswoman said: "It's a personal choice. He will be going to the stadium to watch the final tonight."

Muscovites have been generally fascinated by the largest English invasion of their capital in modern history. The influential Izvestia newspaper today provided a humorous cut-out list of key English phrases for any Russians who came across English fans.

Perhaps aware of the reputation of English football fans abroad, the list was heavily skewed towards persuading noisy, drunken supporters to calm down. One phrase, printed in English with phonetic spelling in Cyrillic, said: "Sir, don't piss on the grass please. Pushkin and Dostoyevsky used to walk here."

Another declared: "Calm down sir. The Russian bear goes hunting at night."

The paper suggested that, if all else fails, Russians should ask the English fans the way to the London national library. It explained: "Trust us - the fans will begin to think about this. Some of them for a long time..."