UEFA EURO 2016 (Marseille)

Tuesday 21st June 2016
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,

There must have been at least 35,000 Polish fans inside the ground today and they made some noise, it did make me wonder what the atmosphere would be like for an Olympique Marseille game.

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.

UEFA EURO 2016 (St Etienne)

Monday 20th June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group B
Stade Geoffroy Guichard
Slovakia 0-0 England
Attendance: 39,051

This was the game I had the biggest dilemma with. When this little jaunt around southern France was planned, and tickets obtained, we had no idea who we would be watching. After the draw had been made it then became clear it would be Slovakia v England. However I also had tickets for Russia v Wales back in Toulouse. I factored in that it was 550km back to Toulouse, coupled with the fact that tomorrow we will be heading to Marseille, a further 330km from Lyon, even further from Toulouse, and came to the logical conclusion and stuck with plan A.

After an afternoon chilling with a few beers, it was a 45 minute train journey from our base in Lyon to St Etienne. Upon arrival at Châteaucreux Station there were loads of England fans in the surrounding bars and cafes, so we decided to head off the beaten track to try and avoid the mobs. We stumbled on this backstreet bar, which turned out to be a St Etienne Ultras bar. Once established that two of us were not England supporters they were absolutely fine.

We had a very good chat about St Etienne, who were a major force in European football in the 1970's. They came within a Hampden Park (square) post of winning the European Cup in 1976, eventually losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich. As I one of the chaps I was with is a red, the subject of a famous night in 1977 came up. He was there etc etc. Michel Platini is one of St Etienne's many famous former players, as is current darling of the French team Dimitri Payet. They also gave an insight into their rivalry with Olimpique Lyonnais and told us there is currently an away fan ban in place due to trouble at past encounters.

The Stade Geoffroy Guichard was opened in 1931 and is named after the founder of the Casino retail group, who purchased the site on which the ground was built. It is another ground that has a British feel to it, with four separate stands, though for this tournament the corners have been filled in to increase the capacity to over 40,000.

It was a good 35 minute walk to the ground where en-route we were treated to the finest songs the England fans had to offer. I'll leave it at that. Upon arrival at the ground, despite arriving over an hour before kick off, it took the longest of all the grounds I had visited to gain entry. There were hundreds of fans trying to enter through one gate and the crowd was swelling as the minutes passed. At one stage it was becoming very uncomfortable as crushing started to happen. I got separated from the others but, after a cursory pat down, I manged to gain entry well before kick off.

England had the better chances and dominated the possession, and maybe they were thinking 'Nothing can stop us' but Slovakia keeper Matus Kozacik was in fine form and their solid defence was marshaled superbly by Martin Skrtel. 

Slovakia knew a draw (and four points) would be enough to see them through and they never had any attacking intent whatsoever, apart from the odd counter. It was 'So tough' for England who didn't appear to have any idea how to break down the Slovak defence.

Indeed a mix up between Chris Smalling and Joe Hart could have gifted the Slovaks a goal. However the draw means that both teams go through, however Wales' 3-0 victory against Russia meant that it was Wales who topped group B. No doubt the Welsh were dancing in the streets of 'Tiger Bay' after that result!

PARKEN STADIUM (Denmark v Serbia)

UEFA EURO 2016, QUALIFYING GROUP I, DENMARK 2-0 SERBIA,
ATTENDANCE: 30,887

After spending the afternoon at Sundby Idrætspark, I headed up to Parken for the main event of my groundhopping weekend.

Denmark were playing Serbia in a Euro 2016 qualifier and it was the chance to watch familiar names such as Daniel Agger, Christian Eriksen and Nicklas Bendtner for Denmark, along with Branislav Ivanović, Aleksandar Kolarov and Nemanja Matić for Serbia.

There was also a blast from the past for this Evertonian as Lars Jacobsen was playing at right back for Denmark. The defender now plays in France for Guingamp but had a season with the Toffees in 2008/09 where he played a dozen or so games, including a substitute appearance in the 2009 FA Cup Final.

The game was taking place at Parken, currently known as Telia Parken for sponsorship purposes. The ground is a fine example of a modern football stadium. Parken, as well as being the national stadium of Denmark, is actually the home of FC København, who bought the ground 1998. The ground is built on the site of the original national stadium, Idrætsparken, which was demolished and rebuilt between 1990 and 1992. 

The ground was opened in September 1992 when Denmark played a friendly against Germany, which was a repeat of Denmark's most famous game, from a few months earlier, when they beat Germany 2-0 in the European Championship Final, a tournament in which they had actually failed to qualify.  Denmark were invited to replace Yugoslavia with just 10 days notice and went on to become the unlikely champions of Europe.

They faced the then World Champions in Gothenburg and they stunned everyone when ex-Arsenal legend John Jensen drove in after 18 minutes. Kim Vilfort added a second goal and some inspired goalkeeping from Peter Schmeichel ensured a shock victory for the Danes.

My battered Panini Mexico 86 sticker book

My first experience of the Denmark national team was in the 1986 World Cup Finals in Mexico when the 'Danish Dynamite' led by Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær in attack, topped their group, including a 6-1 thrashing of Uruguay, before losing to Spain in the second round. Skipper for that tournament was Morten Olsen, who is now the coach of the national side. There were plenty of the classic 'Hummel' retro shirts being worn by Danish fans this evening.

Denmark and Serbia are in a five team group along with Portugal, Albania and Armenia. At the start of play all teams had played 4 games and Portugal were top with 9 points, Denmark level with Albania on 7 points, with Serbia and Armenia with a point each.


The Danish FA refused to set aside a secure area for Serbian fans, after the reverse fixture back in November was played behind closed doors because of the trouble at the Serbia v Albania game, which was abandoned. It meant that although there were Serbian fans present tonight, they were individuals rather than large groups of supporters (the Serbian FA declined to handle tickets on behalf its fans meaning that the Danish FA would be liable for any losses due to any trouble).

Denmark ran out 2-0 winners tonight but I thought Serbia were very unlucky not to take something from the game. Yussuf Poulsen gave the Danes the lead in the 13th minute before Daniel Agger missed a penalty (pictured right). After that Serbia dominated possession and had some great chances to equalise but they found Kasper Schmeichel in fine form. 

The Leicester City stopper made some top draw saves to keep his side in front. In the 87th minute Denmark broke away and Jacob Poulsen scored to make the game safe. The result probably means Denmark will be heading to France next summer along with Portugal, who also won again tonight thanks to another Ronaldo hat-trick.

There was plenty of Carlsberg flowing at the ground this evening but I was happy to resist the, err, charms of Danish amber nectar and headed straight into the city after the game where the Taphouse, with it's 61 ales on offer, was able to satisfy this particular groundhoppers beer cravings!!

KING BAUDOUIN STADIUM (Belgium v Wales)

UEFA EURO 2016 QUALIFYING GROUP B, BELGIUM 0-0 WALES,
ATTENDANCE: 55,000

It was time for the main event as I made my way from Grote Markt  to The King Baudouin Stadium in the north of Brussels.

The stadium is forever remembered for the Heysel Stadium disaster of 1985 when 39 football fans lost their lives at the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. Their fans were separated by a neutral block, set aside for Belgian fans. This block however was filled with Juventus fans and before kick off both sets of fans began baiting each other, throwing missiles at each other (including bits of the crumbling terrace). Liverpool fans then charged at the Juventus fans and as they fled a wall blocking their escape collapsed on top of them.

There is a memorial in the corner of the ground where the tragedy occurred. It is a sundial with 39 lights and there is a plaque with the names of the victims.

The stadium has been completely rebuilt since those events of May 29th 1985 and was renamed after the Belgian monarch who died in 1993.

This Euro qualifier was a highly anticipated game and tickets for the Wales end were seriously oversubscribed. The allocation of 2,400 were quickly snapped up and it is estimated a further 1,000 travelled without tickets.

Wales have a great start to qualifying, winning two and drawing one of their three games but tonight was to be a big test against the team ranked 4th in FIFA's ranking.

It was a fantastic, back to the walls, performance from the boys in yellow as they held out to gain what may prove to be a valuable point. As you can imagine Belgium had most of the possession, Eden Hazard weaving his magic, and most of the chances with Nicolas Lombaerts hitting the post.

Wayne Henessey was also in top form, pulling off some fine saves. Christian Benteke had a chance to win the game in stoppage time but the Welsh defence held firm. Inevitably Wales' best chance came through Gareth Bale but he dragged his effort wide.
A fine result and the Welsh fans celebrated with gutso as they dispersed in the Brussels night.