Best European football match day

Soldato
Joined
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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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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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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.
 
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 *****).
 
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?
 
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.

Yeah appreciate that. If that's the case then that's fine, we'll be there Saturday and Sunday. If it's Friday then will just have to suck that up and enjoy a weekend in Porto. Can't not plan it in advance with people's diaries/commitments/childcare help. And if it moved to Friday we couldn't go anyway as there's no flights.
 
Ok, as long as you're aware. I think the chances of the match being moved to the Friday are very slim - it's usually only done due to scheduling of midweek fixtures. There's no midweek European matches to worry about however there is the semi final of the Portuguese cup being played over 2 legs the midweek before and after that fixture. Even if Porto made the semi (which there's a decent chance of), given that you typically play Tuesday/Wednesday or Wednesday/Tuesday, worst case scenario is the League game gets moved to the Saturday.

Yeah I've just looked at their historical results, looks like they often put Sporting and Benfica on the Friday as the big games, but Boavista has never not been a Sat/Sun (was a Wed once but looks like that was a COVID anomaly).
 
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