June 13th and today I'm not going back a year, a decade or even 44 years to my first match attended back in 1977. Today I'm not going back at all because today's featured programme comes from today's European Championships Group Stage game between England and Croatia at Wembley.
Attending today's game meant the world to me. I first attended the Final stages of a European Championships back in 1988 and I have subsequently attended the Finals in 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012 and 2016. I love International football and the European Championships in particular and I had applied early to UEFA for tickets for Euro 2020. I was delighted to secure tickets to eight games from UEFA comprising six games at Wembley (including the Final) plus games in Munich and Budapest and I was so looking forward to the tournament. Apparently that was a schoolboy error as I failed to take into account the possibility of a global pandemic putting the kybosh on things. Euro 2020 was postponed by a year and given that every stadium became subject to travel or capacity constraints, my tickets started to disappear. First I had to give up my tickets for those matches Munich and Budapest as travel to such locations was out of the question. Then UEFA conducted their restricted capacity ballot and my six Wembley games became just one: the second Semi-Final early next month.
At this point I started to get resourceful. I have been a member of the England Supporters Travel Club (ESTC) since it started and I have attended a number of England matches home and away down the years (169 to be precise inclusive of today's game). I watched as the ESTC conducted their own ballot for ticket holders who had purchased through the ESTC (I had not) and then wrote asking if I could be included in the ballot if any further tickets became available. Their answer was a definite "No" and I wrote back pleading my case and asking them to reconsider given my loyalty and attendance record and then.... nothing. Nothing until last night. At 6PM I got a call from a lovely man at the ESTC asking if I was still interested in a ticket for the Croatia game. Was I interested? Is the Pope a Catholic? Do bears sh*t in the woods? Are bears Catholics? Does the pope.... oh you know I was interested! We were just 20 hours from kick off but one of the joys of living where I do is that there is a direct train service to Wembley Stadium that takes less than 90 minutes. But talk about lastminute.com!
I left the house at 10AM and was standing outside Wembley before noon. I was a bright day and you could immediately tell that it was going to be a hot one. I never get the feeling that England are going to play well in the heat. An all action running game which seems to be the norm in England falters in the heat and teams that can play it slow-slow-quick-quick-slow always seem to be that little bit more effective on a hot day, conserving their energy for when it is most needed. But if you want to win a tournament you have to deal with the situations put in front of you and, as the old saying goes, it's the same for both sides.
In order to enter the stadium, in addition to my match ticket which was contained within the UEFA ticketing app on my mobile phone, I also had to prove that I'd either passed a lateral flow test within the last 48 hours or could provide evidence of both immunisation jabs. My mobile phone covered that too via the NHS app. One wonders what people do these days if they don't have a smart phone: smart phones are now surely the must have device? I was also carrying ID in order to prove that I was the person named on the mobile ticket but, as seems to be the norm at every tournament I've ever attended, threats of ID checks rarely seem to be carried out. My ID stayed in my pocket but I was in!
Mine was a Category One ticket which is supposed to provide one of the best seats. Certainly Cat One is the most expensive. Earlier in the week on the ESTC Facebook Group there seemed to be an awful lot of whinging from people with Cat One tickets located near the back of the upper tier. I'd agree that they're not amongst the best seats in the stadium but the categorisation was clearly explained before purchase for those that were interested enough to read the blurb. My ticket thankfully put me on the lower tier albeit in the corner on the tunnel side. As I had half expected, I found myself in a section with a lot of players' friends and family. A number of so called WAGS who didn't seem that interested in the football but were obviously there to support their other half. In several cases it was easy to tell who was the partner of whom as their kids sported England shirts with Daddy's name on the back. Very cute, especially in the case of Tyrone Mings', John Stones' and Connor Coady's kids.
Just ahead of kick off we had the taking of the knee in support of equality which has stirred up a fair bit of controversy in the weeks leading up to the game. A number of so-called England fans decided that they had to boo. At this stage I think they are just booing because they refuse to be told what they can and cannot do. Or perhaps they are actually racists despite all the protestations. The boo boys made their pathetic point and were quickly drowned out by the cheers and applause of the majority and the game was underway. England started very well and Phil Foden unluckily hit the post in the early exchanges. Croatia did come back into it after the first fifteen minutes or so but I did think that England looked the better side throughout despite struggling to break down the stubborn Croat defensive formation. It was goalless at halftime and the second half was similar to the first with one important exception. England scored in the 57th minute! Following some fine work by the so called Yorkshire Pirlo, Calvin Phillips played the ball through to Raheem Sterling who beat the Croatian keeper from close range. And that was it. 1-0 to the Eng-ger-land and the first time that they'd ever opened a European Championships tournament with a victory. Three points and top of the Group until tomorrow at least with Scotland to play next Friday. Me? Well I'm going to be in Glasgow that day watching Croatia again, this time against the Czech Republic. International Football? I love it!
CRB Match No. 2430
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