Spain

La Liga

Sunday 22nd December 2019

Kick Off 18.30. On Time !

Levante Union Deportiva 3 Real Club Celta Vigo 1, attendance 18,653

12’ 0-1

60’ 1-1

70’ 2-1

90’+1, 3-1

@ Estadi Ciutat de Valencia

Calle San Vicente de Paul 44

46019 Valencia

€45 Admission + €2.50 fees, Print at Home Ticket

No Programme.

The Estadi Ciutat de Valencia was opened in 1969, under the name Estadio Antonio Roman, which became Nou Estadi del Llevant in 1972, before taking its current name in 1999. Capacity here is 26,354. The stadium can be reached by way of two different lines on the Valencia Metro system. Estadi del Llevant, on Line 6, is right outside the main stand, whilst getting off at Machado, on Line 3, brings you to the other side of the stadium, but this is a 7 or 8 minute walk.

As with the match last night, tickets had been bought on-line, with €45 being the cheapest available, as we required two seats together, but as with the majority of games I’ve attended in the top divisions in Spain, we arrived to find our seats already occupied, as the Spanish seem incapable of being able to read numbers and letters, despite the section and row clearly being shown in their own language on the ticket. Perhaps they are just lacking in basic education. Anyway, our correct seats were soon vacated! It was nice to see, for the second successive day, that both teams would be playing in their traditional colours, rather than changing for the sake of it, which is something clubs in the Premier League in England could take a lead from!

Levante came into this match 12th in the league table, with Celta Vigo struggling down in 18th place, which is three off the bottom. As with last night, these were two very poor teams. Levante missed two glorious chances in the opening ten minutes, both from headers, the first missed the target altogether, whilst the second hit the crossbar. Both looked impossible to miss. Celta Vigo took the lead after twelve minutes, with their only proper effort of the half, when a corner on the left went right across the six yard box and was swept in at the far post by Aspas. For some reason, it took well over two minutes for VAR to confirm the goal. The rest of the half drifted by with neither team making any inroads and the halftime whistle went with no added time played whatsoever.

Celta Vigo seemed happy with what they had and made no effort to improve on their slender lead as the second half wore on. Levante looked a lot brighter and levelled on the hour mark through Marti, when he followed up a shot that was spilled by the ‘keeper. Ten minutes later, Marti put Levante in front, when a quick throw in saw the ball worked down the left hand side and it was pulled back for him to scuff home his shot from six yards. Celta Vigo never looked capable of turning things round from here, but were always in with a chance while there was only a goal in it, but substitute Borja Mayoral side footed in from close range to make it 3-1 for the hosts in stoppage time, to finally kill the game off. The game was not the greatest ever, but it wasn’t helped by two teams that rolled about and cheated at every opportunity, which is somewhat typical of the style so often seen in Spain. Celta Vigo took the honours as far as yellow cards went, by 6 to 3.

Spain

La Liga

Saturday 21st December 2019

Kick Off 18.30. On Time!

Villarreal C.F. 1 Getafe C.F. 0, attendance 14,526

52’ 1-0

@ Estádio de la Cerámica

Calle Blasco Ibanez 2

12540 Vila-real

Castello

€25 Admission + €1.75 fees, Print at Home Ticket

2 different Programmes available, both free.

Staying for a few days in Valencia meant an ideal time to head the 40 miles north to the town of Vila-real (note the different spelling to that of the football club) to take in the top division match at Villarreal C.F. It was just under one and a quarter hours by train from Valencia Estacio del Nord and cost €12.40 return. With all the rain back home it felt surreal to get off the train in a nice sunny 25 degrees, even though it was 16.30. It was then a mile walk to the stadium, which is on the far side of the town, but at least it was flat all the way. Tickets had been bought on-line, but there would have been no problem buying tickets on the night, as this was their lowest league crowd of the season and there were plenty of gaps on all four sides of the ground.

The stadium was opened in 1963 as ‘Campo del Villarreal‘, then two years later renamed ‘El Madrigal’, which remained up until a couple of years ago, when it became Estádio de la Cerámica, in an effort to help promote the local ceramics industry. In 2016 it underwent a partial facelift, with half of the exterior now having a bright yellow facade, which matches the club colours and nickname ‘TheYellow Submarine’. The ground is all seated, with a capacity of 24.500.

The match was 13th versus 4th in the league table, but I’m not sure how Getafe have managed to reach such heights, as they were absolutely rubbish. Villarreal were little better, which meant the atmosphere was quite subdued, although this is not helped by the fact that Spanish fans don’t really travel in great numbers to away matches. This looked nailed on for a 0-0, as both teams seemed to lack any attacking flair. When the breakthrough did come, it followed a strong run from A. Zambo Anguissa, when he powered through from the centre circle, holding off challenges as he reached the box, before seeing his shot saved, but it fell kindly for Moi Gomez to sweep the ball home. Getafe lost any chance of an unlikely comeback, when their defender M. Olivera picked up two yellow cards in the space of three minutes, (having only come on as a substitute at the start of the second half)leaving them to play the last half an hour with 10 men.

After the match it was a brisk 18 minute walk back to the station to catch the 20.47 train back to Valencia, otherwise it would have been a bit of a wait for the next one, which was due at 21.38. We needn’t have rushed though, as it was six minutes late!

West Midlands (Regional) League

Division 1

Wednesday 18th December 2019

Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.31

Team Dudley 1 Old Wulfrunians 2, attendance 35

8’ 1-0

54’ 1-1

72’ 1-2

@ Priory Road Football Complex, 3G Pitch

Priory Road

Dudley

DY1 4AD

£4 Admission, including free hot drink

£1 Programme, 32 pages.

It was nice to get a midweek match with the traditional 19.30 scheduled kick off. The reason for the earlier than normal start is due to the floodlights here having a 21.30 curfew, enforced by an automatic cut off switch, although we still managed to kick off late and the second half was four minutes behind schedule, but we were done and dusted with about eight minutes to spare in the end.

It had hammered it down with rain for the couple of hours up to kick off and if it wasn’t for the 3G surface then this would have had no chance of going ahead. It rained for the majority of the game too, but the small seated stand just about kept everyone dry. Team Dudley came into the game eighth in the league table, with Old Wulfrunians three places above them. Team Dudley took an early lead, somewhat against the run of play, and managed to hold on to their slender lead until halftime. Old Wulfrunians looked the better side and once they were level, through an angled shot into the far corner of the net, nine minutes into the second half, then they always looked the more likely winner. What turned out to be the winning goal came courtesy of a side footed finish into the bottom corner from just inside the 18 yard box, giving the visitors the three points, which sees them climb a place in the league table.

Middlesex F.A. Senior Cup

2nd Round

Tuesday 17th December 2019

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.53

Barnet 1 Staines Town 1 (3-4 pens), attendance 63

9’ 1-0

82’ 1-1

@ The Hive, ATP 1, 3G Pitch

Camrose Avenue

Edgeware

HA8 6AG

No Admission

Programme online only, Team Sheet available 50p, didn’t bother buying.

Car Park £1.

This was my third visit to see a match at The Hive. On 23rd January 2011 I saw London University 1 Cambridge University 2 in a representative match. The match was played on a grass pitch (which now has a stand on the halfway line)on a plateau to the right of what was in those days a part built stadium. The second visit was on 12th November 2013 to see Barnet 0 Welling United 0 in a National League match, with the game on the main stadium. Tonight’s match was being played on ATP 1, which is one of two 3G pitches here, this being the one on the left of the driveway as you enter the complex.

Barnet had tweeted that the match had been switched to this pitch due to the stadium pitch being waterlogged. It was free admission, but viewing was to be “down one side and behind one goal only”. They didn’t say that viewing was to be through the cage though, as they were not allowing anyone to stand inside, and it was only half of one side and goal end where you were allowed to stand. The not too friendly stewards (around one for every half dozen spectators) made sure no one strayed in an attempt to gain some sort of decent view. The ‘ground’ really wasn’t fit to stage a game of this level, with yellow lines in addition to the white pitch markings and some of the dimmest floodlights I have ever seen a match played under.

It is hard to tell what kind of match it really was, as watching through a green mesh fence means you feel like you’re not really part of it and it is like you are detached from what’s going on. A very youthful Barnet team went in front inside ten minutes, with a side footed finish from close range. Staines levelled with eight minutes left, with a superb top corner shot from the edge of the D. Thankfully, straight to penalties. Both teams missed their second kicks, then Barnet missed their fourth as well, meaning Staines converted the last kick to win 3-4 and go through to face Wealdstone in the next round.

Surrey County Intermediate League (Western)

Saturday 14th December 2019

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Hambledon 6 Cranleigh 0, attendance 37

15’ 1-0

21’ 2-0

44’ 3-0

51’ 4-0

80’ 5-0

82’ 6-0

@ Badger Park

Hambledon Road

Hambledon

GU8 4DL

No Admission or Programme.

With it raining heavily for most of Friday, and into the early hours of Saturday, it was once again going to be a challenge to avoid having to watch a match on a 3G pitch, with my first choice of matches rapidly joining an ever increasing list of postponed games, but thankfully, around 12 o’clock Hambledon tweeted that their match was on and despite being wet, the pitch was playable. On arrival, in what was now a sunny day, it was good to see the teams warming up on the pitch, rather than to the side, which was a good sign that it perhaps wasn’t too wet after all. It certainly helped that the pitch had a side to side slope, which meant it had drained quite well and the pitch looked very good. It did cut up in the centre circle, but otherwise it remained in very good nick.

Hambledon came into this top of the league table, although their two point lead over second placed Guildford United has been achieved from playing three games more, so they might not remain top for long. Cranleigh were only ninth in the table, but they put in a good performance here and the game was much closer than the score line suggests. The killer third goal, just before the break, finally saw the points safe for Hambledon, but Cranleigh competed well, with the real difference being that the hosts were far more clinical with their chances. The gap at the top of the table now stretches to 5 points, with Guildford United now having four games in hand over the leaders.

Hampshire Premier League

Division 1

Saturday 7th December 2019

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.58

Kingsclere 3 Queens Keep Southampton 2, attendance 17

12’ 1-0

45’+1, 2-0

52’ 2-1

67’ 3-1

84’ 3-2

@ The Fieldgate Centre

Field Gate Drive

Kingsclere

RG20 5SQ

No Admission or Programme.

I am assuming the road was built before the building, so it is odd that the road is named Field Gate Drive, but the centre is Fieldgate. Must make sense to somebody. Anyway, this was my second choice of match today, as I had originally planned a double in East Sussex, but the first part of it was postponed quite early on, so it was on to plan B.

Kingsclere won Division 1 of the Andover & District League last season, winning all 10 matches, in what was just a six team division. They have had a bit of a mixed start to life at a higher level, currently sitting in eighth place in the league table (out of 12), whilst visitors Queens Keep are fourth, looking to bounce back from being relegated from the Senior Division at the end of last season, having finished second from bottom.

This was real end to end stuff, on what was a very soft pitch, with both teams looking much better going forward than they did defending.Both teams squandered chance after chance, but Kingsclere went into the break with a 2-0 lead, but it could easily have been QK that were in front. The visitors pulled back an early second half goal, but when Kingsclere went 3-1 up with just over twenty minutes left, it looked all over. QK got a second goal, with a superb volley from the edge of the box with six minutes left and pushed hard for an equaliser. They headed in a leveller in the last minute, but this was disallowed for offside, wrongly in my opinion, but a Club Linesman will always give a decision to benefit his own team, rather than a ‘fair’ view, so Kingsclere hung on to take the three points.

Portugal

Primeira Liga

Sunday 1st December 2019

Kick Off 17.30 Actual 17.34

Vitoria Futebol Clube Setúbal 1 Vitoria Sport Clube Guimarães 1, attendance 3,648

50’ 0-1

62’ 1-1

@ Estádio do Bonfim

Praca Vitoria Futebol Clube

2901-882

Setúbal

€15 Admission

No Programme.

The train from Lisbon took 52 minutes and cost €9.90 return. On arrival at the station, the ground is no more than ten minutes walk, so we headed there to buy tickets for the match, before heading into the town. There is currently refurbishment going on at the ticket booths, so tickets are being sold from the club office at present, so we were glad to be ahead of the queue as it was snaking back quite a way as kick off approached.

The ground here is very typical of the older Portuguese stadiums, having been built in 1962. It is an all seater oval shape, and as expected, had very little cover, although it remained dry throughout, so not a problem. The only choice of tickets for non Socios were €10 behind the goal, which was with the away fans, or €15 down the side, but at least you could sit where you wanted, so this was what we went for.

The match was 14th versus 6th in the league table. The first half was a very cagey affair, with Setúbal having the better of the early exchanges, then Guimarães coming into it as the game went on. The breakthrough came early in the second half, when an angled left footed shot into the far corner put the visitors ahead, before Setúbal drew level just after the hour mark, when a long ball over the top saw their striker finish a one on one chance past the ‘keeper. Neither side did enough to win it and a draw was probably a fair result.

Even with the match finishing fifteen minutes later than expected, it was an easy stroll back to the station for the 19.58 train back north to Lisbon.

Portugal

Segunda Liga

Sunday 1st December 2019

Kick Off 11.15 Actual 11.16

Casa Pia Atletico Clube 0 Clube Desportivo Nacional 1, attendance 274

32’ 0-1

@ Estádio Pina Manique

Rua Monsanto

1500-462

Lisboa

€5 Admission

No Programme.

With this kicking off early, due to being shown live on television, it was the perfect way to start the day’s football. The ground is in the north west of Lisbon, which meant a seven minute tram ride to the nearest Metro station, then a journey of seven stops northwards. A short walk would then be followed by a suburban train for one stop westbound, then finished off with a sixteen minute walk to the stadium. We went for the far easier and quicker option. A twelve minute ride from our hotel by taxi, which only cost €7.80.

The club had advertised the ticket pricing for the match a couple of days ago. €3 for Socios (members), €5 for visiting club Socios and €7 for General Public. We arrived at the ticket booth to find just two windows open, with the closed one being the one we needed. However, I just went to the window and asked for two tickets and handed over a €20 note and was handed back two tickets and €10 change. So, we were in the visitors section, but not a problem and it was €2 cheaper per ticket than we were expecting, so even better. The only possible problem was that there was no cover in the away end and the rain showers were very frequent, although not too heavy, but looking at the cover in the home section, it wouldn’t have really kept you that dry anyway, as it only looked to reach past the back couple of rows at best.

Casa Pia started the day second from bottom in the league table and with Nacional lying second, it looked like this would be a comfortable away win. Casa Pia had a couple of decent chances, before a left wing cross was finished off with a stooping header, to put Nacional in front just after the half hour mark. Very little else happened, apart from Casa Pia missing a second half penalty, which was blazed high over the crossbar, in a game that never really got going. At least the 70 away fans in our section could enjoy their trip home to the island of Madeira, knowing they are one step closer to a promotion place and an island derby with local rivals Maritimo to look forward to next season, although if Maritimo don’t improve on their performance at Benfica last night, then they might end up swapping places with them instead!

The match finished twelve minutes later than we were expecting, but the walk to Benfica railway station only took fifteen minutes, with the only hill being downward, so we easily made the 13.36 train, which was a three minute ride, and just one stop, eastwards to Sete Rios station, from where we would board the 13.49 southbound train for the second match of the day.

Portugal

Primeira Liga

Saturday 30th November 2019

Kick Off 18.00. On Time !

Sport Lisboa Benfica 4 Club Sport Maritimo 0, attendance 52,772

9’ 1-0

17’ 2-0

31’ 3-0

55’ 4-0

@ Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica

Rua Jose Maria Nicolau

1500-374

Lisboa

€30 Admission

No Programme

As with Sporting Clube Portugal, Sport Lisboa Benfica was another club that built a new ground to host matches in the Euro 2004 Championships and again it was built next door to the previous one. In this case the old ground had been the Estádio da Luz, which at one time had a capacity of 120,000, but was down to around 78,000 when I visited on 3rd November 2001, when I saw Sport Lisboa Benfica draw 0-0 with Vitória Sport Club Guimaraes in a Primeira Liga match in front of a crowd of 46,200.

The new stadium has an all seated capacity of 65,647 and is easily reached by using the Lisbon Metro, taking the green line to Alto dos Moinhos station, where the ground is 300-400 yards walk from. Tickets for this match were more of a problem, as the on-line sales would not accept the passport numbers in order to purchase tickets to print at home, so they were bought from the club ticket office at the stadium on Thursday afternoon. It was also difficult to find two seats together, with just two sections of seating offering this, but there were thousands of empty seats (and I mean, thousands!) all round the ground on match night in every single section.

The match was 1st versus 14th in the league table and unfortunately, as a neutral, went totally to form. Benfica scored early on through Pizzi, although we had a ridiculous wait of almost three minutes before VAR finally awarded the goal. The home fans were not impressed, even though the decision went their way. It is the first time I have been at a ‘live’ match where VAR has been in use and it is absolutely pathetic how long it takes them to make a decision and this sort of thing will really kill the atmosphere at matches if they don’t sort it out.

By halftime it was 3-0, with Brazilian striker Carlos Vinicius scoring twice. Early in the second half he completed his hat trick (although one of these has now been awarded as an own goal on the league website) with all three goals scored from inside the six yard box, as was the opener from Pizzi. Maritimo were really poor and offered nothing in the way of resistance. Benfica didn’t have to do much to stroll to an easy three points. Even when Gabriel was sent off for Benfica on the hour mark, for picking up a second yellow card, Maritimo looked no better with a man advantage.

Getting away from the ground after the match was only slightly slower than at Sporting Clube on Thursday evening, as the first train was rammed full, meaning a seven minute wait for the next one.

Portugal

U.E.F.A. Europa League

Group D

Thursday 28th November 2019

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.01

Sporting Clube Portugal 4 P.S.V. Eindhoven 0, attendance 30,146

9’ 1-0

15’ 2-0

42’ 3-0

64’ 4-0 (pen)

@ Estádio Jose Alvalade

Rua Professor Fernando da Fonseca

1500-801

Lisboa

€30 Admission, Print at Home Ticket

No Programme.

I had seen Sporting Clube Portugal play at the original Estádio Jose Alvalade back on 1st November 2001, when they beat Swedish club Halmstads B.K. 6-1 in a U.E.F.A. Cup match, (in front of 22,000 spectators) which included a hat trick from Brazilian striker Mario Jardel. Two years later, they moved into the brand new stadium of the same name, which was built right next door and was opened in time to be used as a venue for the Euro 2004 Championships, hosted by Portugal.

The stadium is easily reached on the Lisbon Metro system, taking the green line to Campo Grande, which is little more than 100 yards walk away. Match tickets were easily bought on-line and printed at home, but there would have been no problem buying them on the night, although the queue at the ticket office looked massive. As the ground holds 50,466, all seated, there was no problem moving around freely once inside the stadium and sitting where you like, as there were 20,000 empty seats to choose from, although the ‘away’ section looked completely full.

The match pitted fourth place in the Portuguese Primeira Liga against third place in the Dutch Eredivisie, but in truth, it was no contest. Sporting came into this match leading Group D and knew a win would guarantee them qualification for the knock-out stages of the competition. Linzer A.S.K. of Austria, were second, level on points with P.S.V. so it was all to play for.

Sporting came out all guns blazing and were 2-0 up after quarter of an hour. Bruno Fernandes crossed for Luís Phellype to head in the opener, before adding the second goal himself with a 20 yard shot that went in off the inside of the post. French defender Jérémy Mathieu added the third, shooting high into the roof of the net just before halftime, again set up by Fernandes. A trip inside the box resulted in Bruno Fernandes completing a man of the match performance, coolly rolling in the penalty to make it 4-0. P.S.V. were woeful and their vociferous fans were quickly quietened down as they were watching their team get a footballing lesson. Sporting got the win to ensure they top the group and it is Linz that quality with them, following their win versus Norwegian side Rosenberg B.K. tonight, as their better results from the head to head meetings with P.S.V. see them through, regardless of the results in the last round of matches.

Ten minutes after the final whistle we were back at the Metro station and easily on the first train back into Lisbon city centre.