Македонија 0-1 España
Arena Filip II Makedonski
08/09/15
Att: 28,843 (Yeah right!)
When booking flights for the Balkans trip football wasn’t a focus at first. The plan was simple, fly to Ohrid, Macedonia, end up in Osijek, Croatia 8 days later. Belgrade was to be the focus, but maybe we’d be lucky for another game while out there was the general consensus. Instead I’m writing this blog on the back of 4 games in 3 countries in 6 days. And to be honest, I could and should have done more.
First up was this qualifier in Skopje, on the Tuesday night. We’d spent the first two days of the trip in Ohrid, a quaint little city in Southern Macedonia on the shores of Lake Ohrid. An early bus was booked at the pricey £4.40 for the 3.5 hours journey north, a journey I slept the whole way. Unlike all the other games we were to do this week, we were able to buy tickets online (Cost, £3!!!) so the 6 of us, except Lewis, had guaranteed entry. All that was need was to exchange them at the turnstile before kick off. A simple enough task, as you can imagine. All that was required was the customary half-arsed check of our ID. Over the week, we’d grow accustomed to this half-arsed nature.
With an hour to go to Kick off we made the short 10-minute walk along the river from our hostel to the ground. You’d assume that entry into a ground that had been renovated so recently would be easy enough to gain entry to, but this is the Balkans. Not much makes sense. Instead, the ground has four entrances, and tonight’s crowd was 20,000. Each turnstile had only one small entrance to get int. As such getting in was a complete and utter farce. Taking us 40 minutes, packed in like cattle, so we barely made the Macedonian National Anthem.
The ground itself was OK, especially given the blue running track. A seriously steep bowl, it gets larger along the sides. Because it’s so steep you don’t feel a million miles away from the action, but all the same it isn’t great. The Red and Yellow seats are somewhat hideous. In terms of refreshments I saw one table bench, which only sold some fruit drink for a stupid price of 40p or something. In terms of food, all you could get food wise were pumpkin seeds.
In terms of the game, it was god awful, and because of the games since I can’t and won’t remember what happened. Although this could’ve been 7-9 and I wouldn’t have remembered what had happened because od the game that happened on the Saturday (Belgrade Derby). I left 10 minutes early to stand in the concourse as well, it was that bad.
All in all, far from the best way of introduce us to football in the region. I can only imagine just how bad football is at league level in this country. Not that it would stop me returning to watch some…..!
First up was this qualifier in Skopje, on the Tuesday night. We’d spent the first two days of the trip in Ohrid, a quaint little city in Southern Macedonia on the shores of Lake Ohrid. An early bus was booked at the pricey £4.40 for the 3.5 hours journey north, a journey I slept the whole way. Unlike all the other games we were to do this week, we were able to buy tickets online (Cost, £3!!!) so the 6 of us, except Lewis, had guaranteed entry. All that was need was to exchange them at the turnstile before kick off. A simple enough task, as you can imagine. All that was required was the customary half-arsed check of our ID. Over the week, we’d grow accustomed to this half-arsed nature.
With an hour to go to Kick off we made the short 10-minute walk along the river from our hostel to the ground. You’d assume that entry into a ground that had been renovated so recently would be easy enough to gain entry to, but this is the Balkans. Not much makes sense. Instead, the ground has four entrances, and tonight’s crowd was 20,000. Each turnstile had only one small entrance to get int. As such getting in was a complete and utter farce. Taking us 40 minutes, packed in like cattle, so we barely made the Macedonian National Anthem.
The ground itself was OK, especially given the blue running track. A seriously steep bowl, it gets larger along the sides. Because it’s so steep you don’t feel a million miles away from the action, but all the same it isn’t great. The Red and Yellow seats are somewhat hideous. In terms of refreshments I saw one table bench, which only sold some fruit drink for a stupid price of 40p or something. In terms of food, all you could get food wise were pumpkin seeds.
In terms of the game, it was god awful, and because of the games since I can’t and won’t remember what happened. Although this could’ve been 7-9 and I wouldn’t have remembered what had happened because od the game that happened on the Saturday (Belgrade Derby). I left 10 minutes early to stand in the concourse as well, it was that bad.
All in all, far from the best way of introduce us to football in the region. I can only imagine just how bad football is at league level in this country. Not that it would stop me returning to watch some…..!