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I've been to a couple of Premiership matches before, but I'm not exactly a big football fan. When tickets for what everyone was telling me was the biggest derby in the world were offered to me I didn't want to say no. Even though they were £130. That's a ludicrous amount, although the most depressing thing was that the price on the ticket was actually £6, but I was in Argentina so had to do business the South American way and bribe my way in as I wasn't a member.
I have to say though, it was completely worth it. Being in the stands with some of the most passionate fans in the world, watching Boca Juniors play River Plate, has been a highlight of the trip. It was also a bit of an endurance test.
The stadium isn't in the nicest of areas so we had to arrive 3 hours before kick off to get in safely and find a spot to stand in. From then on the stands got more and more packed and I ended up with my arms pinned by my sides on my tiptoes. Then the chanting and jumping started and I could feel the concrete stadium shaking underneath my feet. Kickoff was a mass of blue and yellow balloons, streamers, confetti and anything else the crowd could get their hands on. And when the final whistle blew the game was far from over as everyone in our section was stopped from leaving for an hour afterwards so that there were no fights outside.
Thankfully, the only 2 goals scored in the game were Boca's, so everyone around me was crazy happy. But less fortunately whoever designed the stadium can't have been a Boca fan. The away fans's seats are the top tier, directly above where we were, and they definitely weren't appreciating the scoreline. We got water, ice-cream, spit and flag poles thrown at us throughout the game, but that was a lucky escape as some other people from our hostel came back with permanent ink and bleach stains all over them and I've heard it can get even worse.
It's no real surprise that's how the fans treat each other as it wasn't the friendliest game I've ever seen. There were 2 yellow cards in the first 15 minutes, no displays of sportsmanship and a fight involving almost all 22 men which ended in one of the players being dragged off the pitch by 3 armed policemen. Arsenal vs Spurs just won't cut it now.
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tobi
non-member comment
Yay....Buenos Aires
I heard all about the match 'el classico' right? Sounds like an amazing experience, minus the spit as that's just gross. Loved reading the blog so keep it up for the last few weeks and hope you love BA as much as I did; shame the rest of Argentina wasn't so fun for you though. xx