Around Euro 2024 – Day Three - Hamburg (Day 1)

Day Three – Sunday 16th June 2024
Netherlands 2 Poland 1
Hamburg Volksparkstadion – 3pm local time

It was back on the road in the morning to make our way from Berlin to Hamburg for the first game of the day. Slight delay in that my son lost an airpod, so we had to return to the hostel to scour the room. No joy, but he found it in the car later. Such are the delights of constantly moving on. At least in Hamburg we’d have two nights, although as the game was a 3pm kick off we didn’t have time to check into our accommodation before attending the Netherlands v Poland match. 

We parked up next to a station nearest to where we are staying and even had time to sit down and have a meal in a place next to the station. Afterwards, a couple of trains and a mile or so’s walk to Hamburg’s ground and we were there in time. There are no stations nearer the stadium, which is surrounded by woodland – very picturesque it is too, although the woods did provide an impromptu toilet for many lager fuelled supporters after the game.

Rather surprisingly, most of the places selling anything at Hamburg’s stadium did not take card payment, which in 2024, I struggle to get my head around. Just as well I was armed with euros given my son’s voracious appetite. 

 

We were delighted with our seats – back row of the upper tier, pretty close to the halfway line. These were category 2 seats, presumably not 1 because of how high up we were. Hamburg’s stadium is a classic modern rectangular design with the stands close to the pitch and decent views from everywhere. A far better place to watch a game of football than Berlin.

 

The match was an entertaining one. Holland deserved to win, as Poland were not helped by Lewandowski’s being injured. There were a good few long searching balls from the Dutch defence, reminding this viewer of the 1988 team when Koeman (now managing the side) and Rijkaard used to play such passes. They may have Gapko rather than Van Basten up front, but they played some very watchable football all the same. Arsenal interest was provided by Kiwior on the left of the three-man Polish back line, as well as old boy Szczesny behind him in goal. 

 

Fair play to the Poles for taking the lead from a set piece, but you always felt that if one team was going to win, it wasn’t going to be them. The Polish section had a few orange shirts amongst the white of the majority, and I can only conclude this was because they were sold on the black market. Of course, ticket resale at profit is entirely legal in Europe – although against the actual tournament rules, as if they are going to police that. If they wanted to, all they had to do was go in the Polish section and pull out the people wearing orange. Most of the stadium though is sold to ‘neutrals’, although it’s little surprise that most of the buyers of these seats support one of the teams on the pitch. I haven’t seen any violence amongst the mix of fans, which is encouraging. Both sets of supporters made plenty of noise. My son did later show me there was some trouble between England and Serbia fans outside a bar in Gelsenkirchen, and I have no idea what that was like inside the stadium.

I did my usual collection of €3 deposit plastic glasses after the final whistle, and made €87 for my efforts. We returned by train to my parked car and then drove to check into our accommodation for two nights – much nicer standard than the two rooms so far. We didn’t hang around too long though, as we headed into central Hamburg to watch the England game somewhere we could get food with a big screen. We opted for the Reeperbahn, considering that a fair bet. 

 

I reckon there were more Dutch fans there than had been at the stadium, hanging out of bars, singing loudly and consuming plenty of alcohol. I can see the financial benefits of hosting these tournaments for the economy of the host nation after witnessing the sheer quantity of beer consumed at my first two games of the tournament. Rather interestingly, the local police (out in serious numbers) had no tolerance for falling over drunk fans, and we saw one being arrested and later another couple being taken off a train. 

 

One of the lesser packed bars turned out to be a Polish one. There were a good number of Poles in there drowning their sorrows – families with kids too. And a table with a decent view of the England v Serbia game. I ordered a fantastic dish of herring in a cold white sauce and sliced roast potatoes. Some kind of local delicacy apparently. 

As for the game, England did what they needed to, which was win. They were nowhere as convincing as Germany or Spain, but it’s better to save your best displays for later in the competition. After a pretty underwhelming run of warm up games at home, with one win in four, they just need to build confidence again and get into a rhythm of winning matches. Serbia did not make life easy for them, but they found a way, Saka getting the ball to Bellingham for his headed first half goal. Job done, move on.

 

We headed home knowing we could have a much-needed lie-in the following morning, followed by a rest day, just catching matches on TV or iPad.

 

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