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Published: December 10th 2007
Estadio Da Luz
France v EnglandJune 2004
Euro 2004! This was the one - the tournament we were going to win. There were steady signs of an improvement under Sven, we were almost on his home patch - well he’d been boss of Benfica and he still had his villa in Estoril - and the boy Rooney was going to come into his own on the big stage. Well that was the theory…. and the practice was … err, very different.
The tickets transpired to be the easy part with a combination of the direct applications to UEFA and working out the possible group combinations. We ended up with all three England group games, a few other group games and both of our possibilities for the Quarter Finals. It made logical sense to stay in Lisbon for the duration - less moving about when we didn’t need to, more choice and the bases on the Algarve were always going to be at best a bit lively. The practice was not quite as simple - Estoril and Cascais were definite non-starters either on price and availability - and the host of choice in Lisbon was playing hard ball on the prices. I guess you can’t
blame them - there chance to line their pockets out of the tournament. After a major struggle we ended up in Saldanha, just a few stops on the tube from either Benfica or Sporting and handy enough for town in the other direction.
The Estadio da Luz - the real Stadium of Light and not the replica model in Sunderland - was a sight for the England game against France. England as ever had acquired the majority of the tickets and the place was rocking with the St George flags … well it was once we’d got into the ground. There is always a dangerous combination between perceived UEFA security measures, dubious signing and 40,000 England fans - for right or wrong they don’t quite get the English mentality of going for a drink and turning up late expecting to get in. It was the same old story, which ended up with hordes of fans walking down the dual carriageway between the ground and the shopping centre next door in a vain attempt to find alternative routes to the turnstiles. The ground itself has been completely rebuilt since our last visit - the big open bowl having being replaced
by a modern stadium with quaint old memories having been left i.e. the eagle statue out front. And so to the match itself, which was going unbelievably well with Lampard scoring and then we came to the last minute……..
England 1 France 2
90th Minute
Heskey brings down Gallas 30 yards from England's goal. Free-kick to France and Zidane. Zidane equalises with a magical strike into the corner of the net. GOAL 1-1
90th Minute
Gerrard's mis-placed pass lets in Henry and James can only bring him down for a penalty to France. James booked. The last kick of the game and Zidane's penalty seals victory for France when only minutes earlier they were down and out. GOAL 2-1
We spent the next day exploring Lisbon, usually alighting for our downtown expeditions from the Restauradores tube station before reconvening in a rather dubious (but favourably priced bar) near the Cais de Sodre station on the waterfront. The majority of England fans based in Lisbon were usually to be found in the Baixa district around the Rossio Square, so that was a good enough reason to keep clear as the day wore on. The best area for a
Saldanha
Team HQ
Galeto Restaurant - favourite watering and eating hole wander around is the Bairro Alto district, which comes alive at night when bars open up from behind the most unassuming of unmarked doors. During the day, it’s a quiet area of narrow streets, the odd shop and views over the city. The easy way up is by taking the yellow trams.
Sweden 5 Bulgaria 0
After our disappointing conclusion to the first matchday experience, we headed to Estadio Jose de Alvalade the following day for Sweden against Uncle Bulgaria. The home of Sporting has also been totally rebuilt from it’s big green bowl forerunner and is now a more compact arena than Eagle Valley down the dual carriageway. Sweden, inspired by the return to international competition of Mr Larsson, absolutely hammered the Bulgarians. Henrik obviously felt at home in Portugal’s home of the green and white hoops.
The next day we were up bright and early to go and collect a hire car from near Marques Pombal, so we can get up to Porto for our next fixture. The driving in Portugal comes with a reputation i.e. a dangerous reputation. The reality is not so different to any other major European country - just make your
Estadio Da Luz
France v England moves with confidence. It took about three hours or so to get to Porto and armed with our trusty map, we secured a prize parking position about 5 minutes walk from the ground with a direct run back down on to a motorway slip road for the end of the match. After a brief examination of the ground, we caught a bus back downtown into the “tango” zone. We were attending Germany v Holland - two nations not known to care too much for one another - but the city centre was pretty much in the hands of the Orange with every conceivable vantage point being draped in the colour. I can’t remember the centre of Porto being anything other than provincial compared to Lisbon, with the most dominating feature being the bridge across the River Duoro. The banks of the far side are the base for the port houses and so all the names of the various brands are highly visible.
Germany 1 Holland 1
The return trip to the Estadio da Dragao was a pain. We opted for the tube line - mistake, big mistake. It was just like pouring more and more people into a
Estadio Da Luz
Group outside Estadio Da Luz funnel and blocking off the end. The approaches after the station were straightfoward and as with the city centre, the ground was dominated by orange. It was a match with a big build up, but the reality was pretty dull. An 81st-minute equaliser by Ruud van Nistelrooy ensured honours ended even after a freak goal by BV Borussia Dortmund's Torsten Frings had given Germany a first-half lead. We got back to Lisbon fairly speedily, after our parking research had paid off.
We had a day off from the football, but kept the car for our upcoming excursion to Coimbra and headed off to the coast somewhere near Ericeira.
The next England game was in Coimbra, back up in the direction of Porto. Coimbra comes with something of a reputation as the educational capital of Portgual - a university city that is what Oxford and Cambridge are to us. A town then that was ideal for the visiting hordes - lots of grand old buildings, churches and not an apparent over supply of bars. The locals took it in fairly good spirits, as their church fronts were decorated with the flags and a few Swiss joined in with
Estadio Da Luz
France v England their cowbells.
England 3 Switzerland 0
The match at the home of Academia was a bit of a walkover, as England cruised to an easy victory with two goals from Rooney. It was easily the worst of the grounds we visited - basically an athletics stadium with a makeover and home of Acadamia, who one supposed weren’t going to be troubling the 30,000 capacity at any point post Euro 2004. We got rid of the car the following morning, as all the remaining tickets we had were in Lisbon.
The trip was going well, if you discount the last couple of minutes against France. Alas, events took a turn for the worse outside the Estadio Jose de Alvalade before the Portugal v Spain match. Whilst standing around outside before the game on the off chance of a ticket, I got pickpocketed. The bad news - both passports, credit cards and 50 Euros! The good news - still got the remaining match tickets. The extra good news - I didn’t notice so couldn’t fight back, unlike the fan in the city centre who was stabbed by a Ukrainian after losing his wallet. We’ve been all over the world
Estadio Da Luz
France v England and I am normally Mr Cautious - this sort of thing happens to other people, careless people who are not aware of their surroundings - it happened to us in Lisbon. The next few hours were somewhat fraught - could we cancel the cards in time etc. The answer to that was clearly no and our cards had already been shopping to the tune of about £2,000 in smallish transactions in a “sports shop” within the next hour or so. We got that back, but it was a bit uncomfortable waiting to find that out. The evening was spent in the Tourist Police Station down near Restauradores - making a statement with the copious numbers of other victims and listening to the Portuguese Police …”all day, every day…all day, every day”.
The next day was spent in pursuit of a passport. We’ve never had the need to speak to British Consulate officials before and I hope we never have to bother again. The word that springs to mind was unhelpful. How can you pay 80 Euros each to them when you have no money? Please put the wheels in motion and I’ll come back this afternoon with some cash
when I’ve borrowed it from my friends….No….I can’t exactly skip the country without a passport….you get the general idea of the conversation. The story improved at this point, when we went back in the afternoon with the borrowed money - the passports had been discarded outside the stadium and handed in to the care of Sporting Lisbon. The only bonus of the whole series of events was the courtesy and hospitality inside the inner sanctum of the offices of Sporting - nice leather couches by the way! We spent the remaning time in Portugal borrowing from our friends.
England 4 Croatia 2
We were back at the Stadium of Light for the final group game against Croatia, which after the early blip proved to be another comfortable win. Rooney had got the hang of this tournament by now.
The next few days were spent doing the tourist rounds of Lisbon. We got the train from Cais Do Sodre a couple of times to Estoril and Cascais at the estuary of the Tagus. The rich people of Lisbon have their villas in these suburbs and Estoril is dominated by the huge Casino. Cascais has more of a village
feel about it, but neither really have the glamour of say the South of France. The train in that direction will also take you past the district of Belem, home of one of the most visited attractions in Lisbon - the Mosteiro Dos Jeronimos. If you’re planning a visit - go before the bus loads turn up mid-morning or it turns into a bit of a circus. The area of Belem also has the Torre De Belem - a mini castle guarding the entrance to Lisbon - and the Monument to the Explorers. As we are footie fans, the temptation to walk up the hill behind the monastry to the Estadio De Restelo was too great. The ground is home to CF Belenenses, the third team in Lisbon and for the purposes of Euro 2004 - the Italian training base. The bar on the end of the stand has a great view of the Tagus and the 25 of April Bridge, but the Italians were keen to keep their training secret so we had to give that a miss. After the hassle the English go to get tickets, it’s quite amazing to see tickets for the remaining Italian matches openly
on sale to fans on production of an Italian passport.
Germany 1 Czech Republic 2
Germany crashed out after losing to an under-strength Czech Republic side. The Czechs, maintained their 100 per cent record, after coming from behind with goals from Marek Heinz and Milan Baroš.
After most matches, we gravitated to our new team HQ - the Café Galeto on the Avienda Da Republica in Saldanha - a good terrace to watch the world go by late into the evening without too much aggravation or inflated prices. At times we ended up taking our SuperBocks down at the Fan Park by the Parque Das Nacoes, where the big screens were broadcasting all the games.
Portugal 2 England 2
The curse of the penalty shoot out struck again - we lost 6-5 on penalties, after a 2-2 draw. We thought we’d sneaked it in extra time, but JT’s header was disallowed. I’ve no idea whether it was a good goal or not, as we were at the other end of the ground. Deja-vu 1990 and 1996.
Our hosts in the Café Gelato seemed less than impressed when Portugal got the win. The Avienda Da
Republica was packed with cars, lorries, trucks etc with Portuguese blaring their horns late into the night. However as they pointed out, the locals don’t drink and there would be a lack of money to be made in the next few days as the English went home.
Greece 1 France 0
Our last game was possibly the biggest shock of the tournament to date, with Greece mugging the French to reach the semi finals.
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