Archive for June, 2023

Spain U21 v Ukraine U21, Tuesday 27th June 2023, 9.45pm

June 29, 2023

Bucharest was hosting games in the U21 European Championships at two stadiums and fortunately I had time to see one at each. This one was at Rapid’s ground, the fourteen thousand capacity Giulesti Stadium that opened just a year ago,

Earlier in the day Jen and I had sought out the Ministry of Interior building. It’s the place where Ceausescu made his final speech in December 1989. That’s the one where the crowd turned against him and despite him offering rises to pensions and social security, seemingly on the hoof, the boos got louder, and he ended up legging it up to the roof before being helicoptered away. Four days later he and his missus were tied to chairs and shot. Sometimes, merely removing your pass to the parliament building just isn’t enough.

We arrived for the game between Spain and Ukraine a good hour in advance, mainly because we couldn’t find somewhere to have our tea on the way. In the end we had to settle for shawarmas from a little takeaway place. They were fine, but with time to spare I’d have preferred something a bit more leisurely.

The fixture didn’t have a lot riding on it other than the chance of avoiding a move to Cluj for the quarterfinals. Both teams had already qualified from the four-team group with maximum points and Spain, with the better goal difference, were in pole position to remain in Bucharest with a draw.

Our seats were down the side, in an area that filled up as kick-off approached. All four stands were open for the fixture, which seemed unnecessary considering that the crowd only just reached the two-thousand mark. There was a smattering of Spaniards, but most of the people in attendance were cheering on Ukraine. I’ve no idea how many of them actually were Ukrainians, perhaps temporarily displaced, but a lot of people knew all the words to the national anthem, which suggests closer ties than simply supporting them on the basis of the political situation.

Both sides had made multiple changes which allowed them to give their first choices a break and some game time to squad members. Spain even played both of their reserve keepers for a half each. The lack of familiarity with each other was apparent early on, particularly at the back for Ukraine, and Spain should really have gone in at the break a goal or two up. As it was, it was Ukraine who took a first half lead with a header as the interval approached.

The right to avoid checking out of their hotel swung back to Spain with an equalizer early in the second half, before Ukraine went back in front with a penalty ten minutes from time. However, with their bags almost packed, Spain nicked a draw on ninety minutes to top the group. The Ukrainian players seemed a lot more devastated than I’d have been as Cluj looks an interesting place for a visit. Although maybe they are travelling there by bus. Either way, both teams are into the last eight.

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Romania U21 v Ukraine U21, Saturday 24th June 2023, 7pm

June 27, 2023

There’s a big block of public holiday this time of year in Saudi Arabia and so I took the opportunity to head off to somewhere else. I’d been looking for somewhere that was reasonably easy for both Jen and I to get to and, as you might expect, somewhere with some football going on.

I settled on Bucharest, with it being only three to four hours from both the UK and Saudi Arabia and one of the host cities for the UEFA U21 Championship.

On the morning of the game, we had a wander around and called in at a natural history museum. My main interest in these places is usually the bad taxidermy and there were plenty of exhibits with visible bullet holes or stitching that looked as if it had been done by the animal itself. The most interesting sight though was a fossil of some kind of pre-historic mammoth. It dwarfed the elephant and hippo skeletons positioned either side.

Later on, I took a taxi to the Stadionul Steaua. It’s a new ground, so not the one that the Boro played at in 2006. It’s not the place where Steaua plays either according to the taxi driver. It seems that they have been taken over and the majority of their fans are following a phoenix club which plays at the national stadium.

He also told me that he had lived in Blackpool for two years, working at Billy Smart’s Circus. He volunteered that he hadn’t been impressed with English women, believing that their perception of their attractiveness rarely matched the reality and recalled their tendency to drink too much then start shouting and fighting.

I hadn’t expected that the U21 Championship would attract decent crowds, but this game featured one of the host nations and that had created some interest. Ukraine provided the opposition and, on a day when Russian mercenary forces were marching on Moscow, there were plenty of blue and yellow flags being brandished outside of the stadium.

A quick search and I was through a perimeter fence, followed by a well-marshalled queue for the turnstiles to have my seven quid ticket scanned.

I’d not had a drink for more than eight weeks and sadly the best that UEFA were allowing was a non-alcoholic Burgenbier. It tasted ok, but I would have appreciated that buzz that comes from downing your first pint in a while.

My seat was down the side and in the lower tier. A pretty good view really and, I suppose, a benefit of buying the ticket on the day it went on sale. This was the second match in the group for each side with Ukraine already sitting on three points and Romania yet to get off the mark after an opening game defeat. That meant the absolute minimum that the home side needed to stay in the competition was a point.

Ukraine had the best of the first half and managed to get behind the Romanian defence fairly frequently. The home goalie was in good form though and it was goalless at the break.

For the second half I moved to the upper tier behind one of the goals, just for a change of perspective. I’d chosen the wrong end though as Ukraine were doing most of the attacking.

Romania’s hopes of progressing from the group stayed alive until a minute from time when an own goal gave Ukraine the victory. There was some added-time drama when the visitors went down to ten men after some pre-free-kick jostling went a little too far, but Ukraine held on to take the points and qualify for the last eight.

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