Around Euro 2024 – Day Two – Berlin

 

Day Two – Saturday 15th June 2024
Spain 3 Croatia 0
Berlin Olympiastadion – 6pm local time

They say the journey is better than the arrival. When you are criss-crossing Germany for football matches with a deadline for your arrival time, that isn’t necessarily the case. Our check-in at Berlin wasn’t until 3pm, with the match – across on the other side of Berlin at 6pm. We timed our journey from Paderborn to arrive around 2.45, dump our bags and then head for Spain v Croatia. 

 

However, leaving around 10.20 am (journey time was under four hours, but we’d stop on the way to refuel and in the case of my son buy food), we met an issue en route. Waze, my sat nav app of choice, is generally reliable, but its failure to realise a major motorway was completely closed in one section for roadworks cost us a good 30 minutes, and then the delay of the detour once I switched to the more informed apple maps added another 20 minutes. With a petrol stop, and my son deciding he needed to buy some McDonalds, we eventually arrived around an hour later than scheduled. Bags were dumped, and as there was a bus stop outside, I decided we’d use that to get on the S-Bahn train network. We were staying in the south east of Berlin, nearest station called Grunau, which incredibly has its own Wikipedia entry. 

 

The first bus was rammed, but as we were walking from the bus stop to get in my car, another one turned up immediately. We managed to get to the stadium via that bus and two trains by 5.25. Much later than I’d have preferred, but it brought back memories of France 98, and my traveling around with Alister Campbell (RIP), and for about the first week of games, our ability to turn up to games just in time for kick-off.

There are only two entrances to the Olympiastadion so there is an element of delay getting through the controls due to the sheer numbers. However, by 5.45 we were inside. Decent upper tier seats more or less level with the goal-line at the end Spain scored all their goals, but these were obstructed view tickets, meaning a large pillar blocking to view of the goalmouth. I could lean a bit and see everything when the moments came, and there were a good few in the first half as Spain attacked with relish. 

 

I just had time to buy a beer for myself and my son before the national anthems. Beers at the tournament are €10, with €3 of that being a returnable deposit for your plastic glass. At least we can drink in our seats. And at the conclusion of the game, I collected some left behind glasses (as many others did) and made €66 to contribute towards our expenses. 

The Berlin Olympiastadion is architecturally a wonderful venue, resembling a slightly lower level Roman Coliseum from the outside, with some impressive towers dotted around. However, as a place to watch football it leaves a lot to be desired. The distance from the pitch is way too great – think West Ham’s London Stadium, but bigger. If you are behind the goals, you’d really need binoculars to make out what is going on at the other end, and you’d see very little of that if you were in the first 15 rows due to the rake in the stands. I was here once before for the Champions League final in 2015 when Barcelona (Messi-Neymar-Suarez era) beat Juventus (Morata scored that night, ironically) and had a lower tier seat at the side, facing the penalty area – it was something like row 10 and I struggled to make much sense of what was happening at the other end, due to the low height and the 15 metres between the stand and the playing surface. 

 

At least on Saturday, I could follow the game much better – height always adds better perspective. Nobody wants to read a match report here, but I can give you some opinion. Spain looked much better than I anticipated and were far sharper than Croatia. I can see them making the semi-finals with a little fortune in the draw. It’s 12 years since that classic era Spanish team last won a major trophy, and it’s been a painful decline for them. You do feel they might be on the way back. Croatia were very disappointing, and you have to wonder whether they are now a busted flush. Modric rarely starts at Real Madrid these days and the quality of those around him seems lesser than what has gone before. Still, they are the great survivors, and one thing about the group stage of this competition – it’s not easy to get knocked out. Even three points might be enough, given four of the third placed teams get through. So too early to write them off yet, but in honesty, their finishing was rank in this game, their defending little better. They had enough chances, especially in the second half when they upped their game. They were denied a goal from a penalty kick due to encroachment. I didn’t realise the laws had changed. Instead of it being re-taken, a free-kick was awarded to Spain. With VAR you can’t get away with this stuff nowadays. It would have been too late to affect the score anyway.

 

Other reflections. The Croats and the Spanish certainly like their beers, even at €7 a pop for very average draft lager. A lot of fans prefer the convenience of eating at the stadium, in spite of the exorbitant cost. I had a burger and chips and a large bottle of beer for less than €10 later in the evening at a place near our hostel. That would have cost over €20 at the stadium and been nowhere near as good. Still, we see this a lot at the Emirates. 

 

After the game, on my way back to the hostel, I caught the first half of Italy v Albania on my phone, as my son went off to explore Berlin. I’ve been here before more than once, and frankly, was knackered. I switched to the 20/20 cricket after half time, eat my food and with a drive to Hamburg looming in the morning, got my head down at some point after midnight.

 

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And if you like this kind of thing, you can always revisit my Qatar 2022 blog entries - just search for 'Qatar 2022' in the labels