UEFA EURO 2016 (Nice)

Wednesday 22nd June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group B
Stade de Nice
Sweden 0-1 Belgium
Attendance: 34,011

My French adventure came to it's conclusion on the Cote d'azur with a visit to the brand new home of Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice. After waking up, and opening my window, to stunning views of palm trees and the clean blue water of the Mediterranean Sea, it was a lazy afternoon, mostly drinking Belgian beer in a place called Belgian Attitude, before heading to the ground.

The ground, opened in 2013 and replacing the old Stade Municipal du Rayand, is eco-friendly, drawing more than three times its own energy requirements from more than 4,000 solar panels. The ground has its own geothermal installation for heating and rain water channelled from the roof is used to water the pitch.

To contradict this though, the best way of reaching the ground, which is 13 km outside the city centre, is by car as the train stop for the stadium is yet to be completed. Tonight's match is the penultimate game at this ground, with England v Iceland scheduled here for next Monday before it hosts Rhianna on her world tour on 15th July.

Belgium struggled to overcome Sweden, who at least managed some efforts on target in this game. The game was decided six minutes from time when Radja Nainggolan's stunning 25-yard strike secured Belgium's place in the last 16 of Euro 2016 and eliminated out Sweden. Fabrique Belgique as they say.

As well as being my last game at Euro 2016, it was also the last international game of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as he had announced that this tournament would be his Swedish swansong, no doubt I will be seeing him at Goodison Park next season after Manchester United sign (for) him!

That is my lot for 2015/16, the journey around France was a brilliant way to round off another season of groundhopping, even if the actual football was largely forgettable. Thanks to everyone involved, and indeed over the course of the past 11 months. Hopefully I will see you all soon. Enjoy your summer!

Goodbye, au revoir!

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!

UEFA EURO 2016 (Lyon)

Sunday 19th June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group A
Stade de Lyon
Romania 0-1 Albania
Attendance: 49,752

Saturday was a football free day so I spent time looking at the sights of Bordeaux, such as the Pont de pierre and, naturally, some excellent bars such as the Frog and Rostbif, Houses of Parliament and Le Mashup before heading onto Lyon in the evening. 

Lyon is a beautiful city, the narrow streets of the old town are particulary spectacular. You can walk through doors (traboules) to hidden streets and courtyards. It really is something to behold. I really must make another trip to the city to try and take in some more of the sights.

The ground is around 10km out of the city and, due to delays in construction, was only opened as recently January 2016. It is home to Olympic Lyonnais and replaced the Stade de Gerland which had been their home since 1950. The ground has a capacity of 58,000 and I would estimate over half that capacity this evening were Albania fans.

I was lucky enough to be in amongst the Albanian fans, and they were fanatical in support of their team. They created a superb atmosphere and I defy any critics of the expansion to 24 teams to say it has not added value to the proceedings. By the end of the match it was very hard to resist shouting "Shqipëria" with the Albanian supporters.

Albania recorded their first major tournament win with a 1-0 victory over Romania. Armando Sadiku scored the only goal of the game when he headed past keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu after 43 minutes. There were absolute scenes when the ball hit the back of net.

The closest Romania came to equalising was when a Florin Andone shot came back off the bar. On the balance of play though there can be no complaints with the result as Albania defended heroically to preserve their lead.

However the result, though it took three days for confirmation, was not enough to see Albania through to the knockout stages. Their fans will be a huge miss to the tournament.

UEFA EURO 2016 (Toulouse)

Friday 17th June 2016
Stadium Toulouse
UEFA Euro 2016 Group E
Italy 1-0 Sweden
Attendance: 29,600

After a few late beers in Paris, and a bit of a hairy journey to my hotel due to a lack of shuttle buses and taxis, it was an early start for a flight south to Toulouse. This was effectively the beginning of my trip that had been planned since last summer, when the first batch of tickets went on sale, when the idea was to take in 6 grounds in 6 days.

I was undertaking this journey with three others so I met up with them pre-match before walking the 40 or so minutes to the ground.

The Stadium de Toulouse was originally built for use in the 1938 World Cup. It has a capacity of 33,000 and the locals used to call the ground "little Wembley" as it bears a resemblence to the Old Wembley stadium (minus the twin towers though). I can see their thinking. The ground is actually built on an island in the river Garonne, which is the main river that flows through the city.

Walking to the ground the Swedish fans were in fine voice and their yellow shirts made a colourful sight. I did wonder where the Italian fans were as all I could see was a sea of yellow. 

The game was utter dross and seemed to be heading to a goalless draw until a fine strike from Eder, in the 88th minute, won the match for the Italians. Despite the presence of Zlatan Ibrahimvoic, Sweden never managed a shot on target during the game.

Eder is mobbed by his teamates after netting the winner.