Via A Moscow?

Buongiorno Milano!

The train ride north to Milan was pretty swish, much better than a London to Birmingham train ride. I had a nice seat in clean and airy carriage and arrival into Milan’s huge Centrale station on time.

According to my hostel directions, I can catch a number 90 bus straight there, after choosing a random exit from the station I walked around the whole of the edge and there was no bus stops of any kind. Maybe the Arsenal scarf around my neck was stopping the blood to my brain, but not too much. I go down onto the metro and work out a route on there. The Milanese metro is much quieter than the Rome one, even though there are more lines here. I walk out into the open and around the corner to my accommodation for 2 nights, the Amirai Hostel. It’s a pretty basic affair, beds in rooms and just the one bathroom for everyone. It feels like it’s the home of someone who got given a load of Ikea vouchers at Christmas and decided to buy beds and shelves with them. The staff seem nice and compared to the negative, not that bothered ones of the Yellow in Rome, they couldn’t do much more else for me. Time for a quick shower and change then off into the centre of town for a look around in the late afternoon sunshine.

I arranged to meet up with some Arsenal supporting nerds off the internet, both off the Arseblog forums. Sul who is a active and regular poster and Beeswax who is a lurker. We agree to meet up at the Duomo, which seems the easiest as it’s right in the middle of the town. I have some match tickets for them which have been strapped to my money belt almost every moment since I finally received them on Thursday evening.

Arsenal were true to their word that I would receive my tickets in the post by Thursday, but with me leaving early on Friday I was making up some crazy contingency plans for if they didn’t. Once the panic was over I put them in my belt and they haven’t left since!

We met up in the square which also seems to be the home for about a zillion Spanish school kids all talking at once. They are their mother’s/father’s son’s/daughter’s alright! Whilst chatting to Sul and Beeswax about my trip so far and how crap Arsenal were on the weekend before we spot another Arseblog member Toff walking through the square. And so begins the gathering! After some more arsetalk we agree to meet up for a few drinks later. Toff and I decide to start a bit earlier, after working up a thirst actually trying to find a bar/pizzeria off the main square we dip into a few café’s/bars then head toward our meeting point with Sul and the lurker. After a above average pizza off to the bar. At first sighting it looked a bit dodgy, like a empty shop front. We noticed a few people walking through the kitchen. Give that a try, the other side of the kitchen was a huge restaurant and bar. It felt like the bit when they walk through into the Copacabana in Goodfellas. A few beers in there, a half hour queue to use the gents (I completely forgot, Europeans don’t go to for a piss, ever.) then a walk back to the hostel, I don’t know if it is walkable, but it’s worth a try.

The walk home the previous night was pretty straight forward apart from the getting attacked by the Doberman bit. I had some time in the morning to see what exactly Milan has to offer. Not much really, I went into the Duomo and then onto the roof. From up there you can get a good view of everything in Milan, apart from the Duomo itself. In the distance toward the north west you can see the massive snow covered alps. And just in front of them you the huge Stadio Giuseppe Meazza AKA the San Siro, tonight’s venue. I had a walk around the ‘castle’ which is more of a garden with walls around it. Then a walk to some unamazing columns just populated with kids with dreadlocks (I bet they can all juggle), I’ve been spoilt rotten by Rome, not much to see here really, and I’ve done enough culture for a bit. There are more important things to come up later today. I get some lunch in town then head back to the hostel for a shower and change.

Back to Duomo square I go and as I go up the stairs from the metro, you can hear a lot of noise upstairs. Sounds like Arsenal to me, it is. Looks like most of the away support have decided to pick the most expensive bars and the ones with the biggest beer glasses. It’s grim up North London. I meet up with the boys who I was out with last night. Gradually more and more Arsenal and arseblog members come into the square. The atmosphere gets a little louder when some Rossoneri (Milan fans) turn up to see what is going on. Thankfully the riot police who are in every corner of the square wasn’t used, only for photo opportunities with the visiting fans. As Milan gets dark it gets a bit wet and windy, with a nice breeze coming off the Alps too. I thought about going back to the hostel to get my big coat, but decide that a few more beers will warm me up instead. Not too many mind, I want to see the game!
We decide to leave about 2.5 hours before kick off for the ground. It is several stops on the metro from the centre of Milan but not to far. We have been warming up singing all day, but the metro ride was the dress rehearsal, great stuff. Out of the nearest station and we are immediately taken aside by the police and told to wait for a bus to take us in the ground. We must have waited for a hour to actually get on the bus and then wait for it to actually start moving toward the ground. But It’s another chance to have a good sing and enjoy ourselves. Most of our fans are absolute legends and I would do anything for them, but as always there are a small percentage that are complete wankers.

Forget them, Time to get in the ground. We are cutting it fine when we finally get past the ticket barriers and climb up to the top shelf of one of the behind the goal ends. It seems that everyone is in the ground when we arrive so it’s time to pick a space to stand just in time for kick off. It’s great to be in this stadium when it’s a full house. The Arsenal fans were making the most noise and it was proven when I watched it again when I got home. Arsenal were also making the most noise on the pitch too, Milan just couldn’t put their foot on the ball with Flamini and Fabregas bossing the middle. First half over in a flash, still goalless, but we only need one to nick it, and Milan don’t look like they are capable of scoring with Senderos playing out of his skin. At half time it was also time to find the gents, I’d been meaning to go for about 2 hours!

The second half starts and Arsenal are still on top, but slowly Milan get a few half chances in, which is always deadly against Italians. They score we would need a miracle to get one back. With time running out, it was seeming that Extra time would be likely.

And then….

Hleb wins the ball (What he had been doing all night) turns around, passes to Fabregas, he runs towards the goal. Cue loads of Arsenal fans around me and all over the world shouting “shoot!”. Cesc does for a change. Ball skips along the floor and goes into the keepers right hand corner! Cue our fans going mental. We’ve done it!

Still 5 mins left of the game but we still look full of confidence. No noise from the Milan fans now, most are heading for the exits. Some Arsenal fans are still a little nervous, but then in injury time Walcott escapes down the right. Avoids getting clattered by the Milan defender, puts ball into the box and Adebayor seals it all!

What a perfect match.

After the match the Arsenal fans are locked in, we don’t care for how long. We’ve just knocked
out the European champions at their home. They decided to put a Arsenal DVD on the big screens for us travelling supporters to kill some time but most people are just talking to each other about the match. About 45 minutes after full time they start to let us out. Even on the way out we were being applauded by the stewards, one of the weirdest things ever! It’s going to be hard to keep us lot silent tonight! We got out and immediately there are beer sellers cashing in on our success. Proper practical people selling something we all want. Not like the Africans in Duomo square giving us coloured bits of string, what use is that? We want to celebrate! We all wonder back towards the metro station, stopping off every now and then for food and more drink. Eventually we get to the metro but it’s been closed for a while, so it’s on the bus to the Duomo.

It was quite a struggle to get the beers in the bar after the game, eventually we were all happy with what we got, apart from the cold. It was actually making our beers colder. I wish I had my big coat now! Once all glasses were empty I said my goodbyes to my fellow Arsebloggers and started to walk though the town back to my hostel. Honestly, it was so freaking cold I got a taxi back! The shame!
The next morning, there was no hangover, I think the wind blew it out of me. I was leaving Milan today for Florence. It would have been nice to be here for a bit longer after the result but I’ve got to go back to work on Saturday! I headed back to the Centrale station for my train. I had to buy the Gazzetta Dello Sport and have a read. “MILAN - THE END” was the front page headline. Even with my crap Italian, I could understand that headline. There was quite a few glum looking faces on the train. Most of them were probably just commuters, but not me. I was Smiling all the way to Florence.

I still have 3 more days of my trip, who could be miserable?!

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