My second game of the day was at Denmark’s national stadium, Parken. It had been the venue of the Danish men’s team’s fixture with Northern Ireland the previous evening, but this game was a third tier women’s game between Copenhagen and Naestved. Copenhagen Women don’t usually play their games in a thirty-eight thousand capacity ground, but they had recently clinched promotion and the venue was chosen both as a celebration of their season and to try and entice along a few new fans in advance of their upcoming second tier campaign.
Tickets were free but had to be reserved online and by the time I’d booked mine the website advised that 25,000 had already been taken up.
The metro was busy with lots of families and young women heading for the game. I did a lap of the stadium before finding my entrance to the B11 section, high up behind the goal. It was free seating within each section and so I found a spot close to the front of that tier.
The crowd didn’t feel like twenty-five thousand and it was no surprise when they announced an eighteen thousand attendance. That’s still pretty good for a third-tier fixture.
Fifteen minutes in, there was some Fiddler on the Roof type music played over the PA. That was the signal for people to throw inflatables onto the pitch. The players seemed used to that kind of disruption and casually trotted over to the dugouts for a time-out.
Shortly after play resumed, the visitors took the lead with a shot from distance that caught the home goalie off her line and dipped just under the bar. The goal celebrations revealed a section of Naestved fans at the end of the main stand to my right. The away joy was short-lived however and Copenhagen quickly equalized with a similar effort, chipped in from the edge of the box.
It was clear that the league table hadn’t lied and Copenhagen were by far the better of the two teams. They went ahead with a back-post header early in the second half and then just ran down the clock to clinch the points and send their new fans away happy.
Trail of the Lion King 
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