Best European football match day

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
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Location
Bristol
Looking to take a mate away for his 40th and I know he's keen on part of it being a match day at a decent European club, atmosphere wise. He's been to the big ones - Barcelona, PSG, Real Madrid and a few others - so looking for something a bit more obscure.

I think, over many pints, he mentioned Dortmund, but can't be 100%. Any other recommendations to tie in with a decent weekend city break for just 2-4 guys?

Will be April onwards so CL comes into play, but he's a Villa supporter so no need to worry about the away team, in fact two European teams would probably be better/easier/cheaper to get tickets for?
 
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I'll throw in something different as a starter - St. Pauli?

Now play in Div 2 rather than the Bundesliga, but have a cult fanbase and game days are said to be electric. And they are based in Hamburg, which offers you a lot for a weekend break.
 
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Good start guys, thanks. Turkey may be a bit too far for flight schedules etc; they've all got kids so hopefully just 2/3 nights.

Now playing chess with everyone's availability, when clubs are playing at home, and when flights are. Some we could potentially drive.

I've also got Dortmund on the list but may be very difficult to get tickets?
 
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Old Firm. De klassieker - good luck getting tickets, away end would be sick. You’d be able (have) to get the train back with all the fans. Le Classique could be an options as well, be boring now with PSG being so much better but seeing Messi in real life would be amazing and worth it.

Will be way to far if turkey is too far but I’d love to go to superclasico would be insane to go there, don’t even know where you would start to look for tickets though.
 
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Yeah I think Brazil's a bit too far :D.

Any other suggestions? More the better for trying to align our availability and flights! So far Lech Poznan vs Gornik Zabrze is looking like the only one that really works in terms of flight schedules etc.
 
A couple of my friends went to Dortmund and managed to get tickets, although unknowingly they were in with the away supporters!
They also ended up in an ultras march to the game which was supposedly an experience!
 
Manchester 62 FC

Victoria-Stadium-Gibraltar.jpg


If you want a view like.

It would have to be Dortmund though imo.
 
Anyone been to Porto? They've got a local derby vs Boavista on a date we can do, and flight times/prices work out too.

The only home Dortmund game we could make is vs Wolfsburg and the flights are £220 to Berlin without travelling this end (and Stansted is a *****).
 
Russinating said:
Anyone been to Porto? They've got a local derby vs Boavista on a date we can do, and flight times/prices work out too.

The only home Dortmund game we could make is vs Wolfsburg and the flights are £220 to Berlin without travelling this end (and Stansted is a *****).
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I haven't been personally, but Porto has been recommended to me in the past.

What are your date options? Had a quick scan of non-big 4 league fixtures in April on this site and these jumped out:

Lisbon: Benfica v Porto, 8th April (Saturday)
Stockholm: AIK v Hammarby, 15th April (Saturday)
Eindhoven: PSV v Ajax, 23rd April (Sunday)
Lyon: Lyon v Marseille, 23rd April

Stockholm is a fantastic city and that game is an intercity derby. AIK have a stadium of about 55k too, so good chance of tickets. The other fixtures could be tasty, in vibrant cities that are well connected.

Edit: Oh, and Croatia's 'Eternal Derby' - Hajduk Split v Dinamo Zagreb (currently 2nd v 1st) - is taking place on Saturday 6th May. That would be an experience. I've never seen as many badges/insignias daubed around, as when travelling through Croatia - it's a lifestyle for them. Split as a city is smaller, more chilled than some other places but worth investigating. Low-cost airlines fly into Split, so you'd have options. Airport about 15 miles from the centre.
 
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Flaevius said:
Lyon: Lyon v Marseille, 23rd April
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If you want excitement, I'd go to this game. By excitement I'm referring to the thrill of having fireworks launched at your head from rival fans and the chance of getting bottled. I've commented on it loads of times in the past 12 months or so, Ligue 1 has turned into the most mental league around with constant crowd trouble. Some of the scenes from Ligue 1 games or European games involving French sides have been genuinely shocking. And in Lyon & Marseille you've probably got the most heated rivalry in France too. If that game passes without trouble I'll be amazed.
 
Great shouts guys. So with availablity it looks like the weekends of 29th April and 6th May are the ones everyone can do, and flying from Bristol is highly preferable (convenience and they've all got children so time away too).

Hence the Porto clash looking the best so far, can fly direct with decent flight times for what we need (arrive late, leave early, but 4 nights so a full day both before and after the game).
 
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Also anyone able to sanity check me... Porto are still in the CL. Assuming they progress, the provisional dates for the next stages are:

Quarter-finals: 11th/12th & 18th/19th April 2023
Semi-finals: 9th/10th & 16th/17th May 2023

Am I confident in thinking, therefore, that their fixture on 30th April is highly unlikely to be affected?
 
Russinating said:
Also anyone able to sanity check me... Porto are still in the CL. Assuming they progress, the provisional dates for the next stages are:

Quarter-finals: 11th/12th & 18th/19th April 2023
Semi-finals: 9th/10th & 16th/17th May 2023

Am I confident in thinking, therefore, that their fixture on 30th April is highly unlikely to be affected?
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I really wouldn't be planning this far ahead. Assuming the situation in Portugal is similar to the UK, matches can and will be moved to work around tv schedules and month or two before the game is played. It could simply be a change of kick-off time but the match could also move from Sunday to Saturday or even the Friday.
 
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