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.