UEFA Euro 2016 Group C
Stade Velodrome
Ukraine 0-1 Poland
Attendance: 58,874
Of all the grounds I was due to visit on this tour of the Euro's, this was the ground I was looking forward to the most. The Stade Velodrome is one of the most iconic stadiums in European, possibly world, football and it did not disappoint!
The ground was originally built in 1938, complete with a cycling track that gave the stadium its name, but the Stade Velodrome has been extensively redeveloped over the years increasing the capacity to over 67,000. The stadium used to have uncovered ends behind each goal but these have been rebuilt and all sides of the ground are now fully covered, the undulating roofs are an impressive site. One of the guys I was travelling with visited the Velodrome in the 1990's and he says it looks a lot better in its current form,
The game itself was effectively a dead rubber as Poland were already through to the knockout stages, whilst Ukraine had already booked their flights home after two defeats, a 2-0 loss to Northern Ireland sealing their fate.
Second half substitute Jakub Blaszczykowski, pictured left whilst warming up, curled in a left-foot shot for the winner after 54 minutes.
Ukraine, perhaps playing with a little more freedom after elimination, had plenty of possession and attempts at goal but in truth Swansea City's Lukas Fabianski in the Polish goal was hardly troubled.
My visit to Marseille was very brief, as it was basically a quick stop off to watch the game en route from Lyon to Nice. I therefore did not get a chance to head into the city where there had been plenty of incident in the lead up to the England v Russia game 10 days previous. This game today was also classed as potentially high risk by the authorities but from what I seen everything was pretty good natured.
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