As both Jen and I can work remotely we decided to head off to Spain for a few weeks. We flew into Alicante and rented an apartment a little further down the coast in Santa Pola. It’s an area with plenty of football grounds within an easy drive and it wasn’t long before I’d pencilled in my first game.
Murcia is about an hour away and was providing the location for a couple of fixtures for the Ukrainian U21 side. It’s just like so many Spanish cities, with a well-preserved old town. We had time to look around the cathedral, or at least, a cathedral and called into the attached museum where the highlight was a painting of an olden day bloke flicking the vees.
It was getting dark by the time we made our way up to the New Condomina stadium that usually hosts Real Murcia. Tickets were free, although with an admin charge of less than two euros that my bank still felt the need to verify.
Only the lower section of one stand was open, so even free tickets weren’t enough to draw a sizeable crowd. Most people seemed to be supporting Ukraine and a lot sang their national anthem. I wondered how many of the players had lost friends and family or knew someone at the front.
It was the third time this year that I’d seen the Ukraine U21 team after the two fixtures in the U21 Championship finals in Bucharest in the summer.
I’d told Harry where we were, and he had forecasted an easy win for Ukraine. They had most of the possession and chances and went in at the break a goal up. His prediction looked a lot more likely when Luxembourg went a man down minutes into the second half. The fella couldn’t really complain at going for two yellows as his first could easily have been a red in itself when he took his own retribution at being denied a free kick and launched himself from behind at the perpetrator.
Playing against ten men made it easier for Ukraine. They added another three goals and spurned as many other good chances for an eventual four-nil victory.
Tags: Luxembourg U21, Murcia, Ukraine U21
Trail of the Lion King 
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