Around Euro 2024 – Day Twelve – Munich (Day 2)

 

Day Twelve – Tuesday 25th June 2024   
Denmark 0 Serbia 0   
Munich Allianz Arena – 9pm local time    

I woke up to a glorious sunny day in Munich, although the hotel’s blackout curtains were of sufficient quality that I had no idea until I peaked through them. My son had been watching Copa America on his phone until silly o’clock, so not only did he sleep through the hotel breakfast, I left him to his slumbers as I headed after 10am on the bus and train to central Munich to buy a gift for the Mrs back home. Couldn’t really go empty handed and this was the final opportunity unless I was going to buy her something from the overpriced UEFA merchandise on offer at a game. 

 

I’ve become aware that the transport system in Germany has been the subject of criticism from many quarters, and today justified such comments. The S-bahn (overground) train from Dachau to Marienplatz (tourist central and deservedly so) took a long time to get about halfway there and then gave up the ghost once it reached a station with a connection to the U-bahn (underground) network. I changed and eventually made it to the stop before Marienplatz, where my Citymapper app told me to get back on the non-existent S-bahn line that wasn’t working. I walked the rest of the way.

 

For the most part, the scene was cafés and bars with tables full of Denmark fans, more often than not drinking beer. Well, by this time it was gone 11am, and the game wasn’t for almost ten hours, so why not? There was one bar where the Serbs were gathered and a good number were just standing next to the tables singing and drinking from bottles which presumably weren’t supplied by the bar in question. The Danes weren’t singing at this time. Good idea to save your voices in my experience. It was very warm and I hugged the shade as much as possible. Great news for driving to the ground later, what with my windscreen wipers having died. I reflected that this is what Euros and European Cup final days should be like. A sunny day at the end of the season. 

 

I bought the Mrs a hoodie with a Munich design on it and headed back to the hotel. Fortunately, the S-bahn line was working by this time. 

 

At 6pm, we made our way to the Allianz Arena (or whatever UEFA are calling it for this tournament – the Munich Arena I guess). I have a memory that the Emirates is officially the Arsenal Stadium on European matchdays. Or maybe Emirates are one of the sponsors and they don’t do that anymore. Regardless, we knew where we were going on the SatNav and managed to find a nice legit parking spot about 20 minutes’ walk from the ground. We planned to get to the stadium area and watch the second half of either the France/Poland or Holland/Austria game on an iPad. We stumbled across some Tier rental scooters – although there were also bikes, so I took one of those. Bad move – after about 200 metres we discovered our path to the stadium was shared with largely Serbian fans coming out of a railway station serving the stadium – although not the one I was familiar with from before. We tried to negotiate the crowd with little joy. I lost my son (on a scooter) and on the phone he informed me we were in a ‘red’ area so I couldn’t stop the ride (or the money being taken from my credit card). I took a path off the route, past a few Serbs peeing in the woods, and reached a grey area on the Tier map… only I couldn’t stop the ride here either for some reason. I had no choice but to cycle back through the crowd – easier because they will get out of the way of an oncoming bike – and park it exactly where I picked it up to end the ride. A pointless exercise but lesson learned. I messaged my son to say I’d see him in the seats. He was able to just dump his scooter where he was without any further charge for time used but had to swallow a €25 fine. Any idea of catching the second half of a 6pm kick off game was forgotten, although who could have foreseen Austria finishing top of that group?

 

I walked to the stadium and have to say that getting in on arrival was a piece of cake – zero delays. This is one stadium that is geared up for major tournament football, even if it can be a little tortuous getting there. I am seriously looking forward to the journey from my home office to the living room to sit down in a chair to watch the knockout games on the TV. Not accompanied by a tramful of Romanians. And drinking beer of far better taste and value, although in fairness Bitburger is better than Budweiser for taste, I’ll give them that.

 

The Allianz Arena is a wonderful, steep modern stadium where it is a pleasure to watch a football match. The exterior’s misshapen tyre design comes into its own when it’s dark with it being lit up in appropriate colours. We were on the upper tier level of three and the concourse felt very bleak. I guess with the stadium being shared between two clubs, they can’t really do much in the way of decoration as they do at the Emirates. Can’t knock the amount of room, but it’s austere as anything. You can’t even see the surrounding area due to the nature of the stadium surround for a bit of visual relief. Still, a minor point – we were here for a football match.

 

And yes, what a dull one it was. Denmark 0 Serbia 0. However, the one thing about being there is you experience the tension in the stands, which is very real and gives far more meaning to the match than if you are watching at home (at least when your own country isn’t playing). So, although the quality was negligible, it was knife-edge stuff. Denmark went through with a draw, but defeat for them would likely mean elimination. Serbia had to win. So, the game was never level ultimately, even if the scoreline suggested otherwise. On this level, the tournament does at least provide greater excitement in the group stages, even if only eight teams make their exit. Me though, I am a traditionalist, and I like the idea of the top two going through and two going home. A 16 team tournament is just fine. Less games for UEFA though, and less money. Eight extra teams means a lot more matches and an extra eight sets of visiting supporters, and when you include those without tickets and their contribution to the local economy, well, money talks. 

My ticket was in a neutral zone, as all of them have been, looking down on the penalty area at the end where the Danish fans were congregated. Around me were a mix of fans, the Danes and Serbs seemed to get on very well for some reason. One couple in front had a small baby wearing noise cancelling headphones. I was under the impression that you couldn’t bring babies in without a seat in their name, but maybe I have that wrong. Still, they were hardly going to leave the child in the over-sized items storage facility. I was astonished the baby only cried once during the game, so fair play to the parents. It must have been an assault on the senses even if only visually.

 

My son had his iPhone on with the England v Slovenia game. He had airpods on so he could look at the screen if anything exciting happened. So aside from an offside Saka goal, nothing to report there. With two 0-0s to finish this group – five draws, one win and a total of seven goals, Group C was not so much the group of death as the group of dearth. Of course, England winning it with only five points (Ukraine went home from their group with four) meant they are in the other half of the draw from Spain, Portugal, France and Germany. That’s good, but the way they are playing, it’s fair to say that hopes aren’t particularly high. The draw may be kind to them, but it doesn’t feel like they can beat anybody unless Gareth Southgate drops Phil Foden as a starting point. A quarter final against Italy or Switzerland? If they can even beat Slovakia. A semi-final against Austria or Holland? I guess they could go for a series of 0-0s and hope their penalties are better than 2021.

 

We collected glasses post-match as usual – I managed to get 18, although only returned the coke ones for deposit. I have been made aware that the glasses are being sold on eBay for £10, so much better than €3. Something to have a go at back home. The upper tier food and drink outlets closed their shutters before my son could cash in on the 11 glasses he had, so we headed to the lower tier where they were still open. There was a policy of only giving deposits back on 10 glasses and a few people who’d picked up far more wandering from one till to another to do 10 at a time. My son spotted a girl at one of the outlets and felt the need to engage her in conversation and got her Instagram – which is how these things seem to work these days. Phone numbers are just so old hat. I mention this because it was to prove significant, as the next blog entry will reveal.

 

We made our exit and enjoyed the sight of the Allianz Arena exterior being lit up in the colours of the flags of the two competing countries. The 20-minute walk to the car was followed by a half hour drive to our hotel beds, including a stop to fill up the tank at a petrol station. Tomorrow to Frankfurt for our final match. 

 

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