England Disappoint Once Again – But a great time in Nice once again…

Back to Nice the day after Brexit. Always wanted to finish 2nd as it meant a return to the great city of Nice and then hopefully playing at the Stade de France in Paris… Only down side was getting back to Nice with limited flights to that end of the country – we got a deal via Brussels and back via Zurich with Swiss from Heathrow – a bit of free bar time in the lounge called for on the way out with a 3 hour layover!

Great to see everyone, including Tim from The Ski Lodge with a top lunch at Le Meridian Terrace roof top bar – Number One Promenade des Anglais. Then we had a great result in finding a bar near to the ground due to some local knowledge we obtained. No shuttle bus and 2km walk to the Stadium for us (what were they thinking when they built a new ground – no parking and no public transport? – We were sort of around the back away from the main route and had a good crack with the locals and a few Iceland fans before and after the game.

The less said of the game the better – were our players drugged or match fixing? We couldn’t pass the ball 20m in the second half when under no pressure – Unbelievable, clueless, gutless etc etc.

So after all that, a poor Portugal winning it, Wales playing well v Belgium for 70 minutes and being hailed heroes, the great Iceland story, the bad Russian story (on and off the pitch) and probably the poorest organised tournament of the 11 I’ve been to – but at least no terrorist attacks during it… We’ll probably go to Scotland and Malta away in the World Cup Qualifiers but Russia (if we qualify)?

Back down to earth with a bump – Terrorist Attacks in Nice, Big Sham the new England Manager and the the first pre-season game for The Toon – away to Doncaster – it finished 2-2.

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Nice Pre-Match before that Iceland game…

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Euro 2016 – Harder to get knocked out than progress

Another draw for England, failing to be positive, decisive, clinical and have some kind of cutting edge to beat Slovakia. Still unbeaten though, plenty of possession and maybe playing against a decent side we’d have more space and play a more attacking, pacier game (or get stuffed against a decent attack).

What was Woy thinking about making changes? A lot of despair after the game, a few thoughts about not bothering with the Round of 16 even – all corrected by the morning though over croissants in the sunshine…

Plenty of strange results though and what looks like an unbalanced draw with this format seeing all the home nations progress (except Scotland) to the round of 16 and now the thousands of England fans have to make their way down to Nice to play Iceland rather than Paris – where unbelievably if they progress we’d go next, followed by all the way back South to Marseille then back up to Paris! No one will complain if we’re in the final of course… Ha!

Plenty of La Tania regulars and workers in St Etienne (and Lyon the day before) – see who you can spot on the pics. Great pre-match in St Etienne with plenty of music and outside bars – organisation lacking again though in road delays before the game and massive delays on the trains after the game with fans trying to get back to Lyon etc.

Anyway – onwards and upwards hopefully, back to Nice, Ma Nolans, Waynes Bar, Le Meridian roof top terrace, the best Kebabs and THAT ice cream parlour…

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Euro 2016 across France so far

From the Côte d’Azur to Lens, Arras and the Ardeche some great times, food, scenery and people we’ve caught up with.

Now for Lyon the Gastro capital of France and more friends to catch up with prior to St Ettiene and Slovakia on Monday.

Seems unlike previous tournaments there’s not TV screens in every bar and every public place though – we’ve ended up not watching as many games on TV through a tournament as we usually do.

The fact every game is not on free to air terrestrial TV in France is a bit weird and in Nice airport there was nowhere to watch a game in Terminal 1 (T2 did have a small lounge area with the games on – it was alcohol free though unlike T1 – why?)

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England Win!

After the misery of many previous tournaments, this was looking the same way until the Sturridge last gasp winner!

Absolutely no trouble in Lens despite the highest profile game (and the highest risk according to UEFA) with around 55,000 fans from Wales and England in town.

Some tickets going for a “reasonable” €300 for a €55 face value ticket in our hotel – some for more than €800 on the street and the highest prices on re-sale sites for any game outside the final.

There was also no alcohol ban at all – we even took bottles of wine and glasses in to the street and stood in front of the riot police – loads of outside bars and Welsh & English mixing well. England fans even helping unload kegs and crates as small bars and restaurants ran out of beer and needed re-suppling!

No surprise to us really – there were no Russians (or French hooligans) there to cause trouble. Everyone just wanted to enjoy the day.

The walk to the ground and organisation was very poor. No signs or stewards with gate numbers etc. Usually these are excellent for UEFA or FIFA games.

Anyway, good result in the end but when we realised the team was unchanged the mood was not very good. Surely we should start the next game as we finished. Maybe Wilshere in for Lallana for a bit more creativity?

All the people in Lens and Arras were very friendly, got a lift back from an Algerian restaurant in Lens owned by a fat Riyad Mahrez! And yes we played arras in Arras… 

This was probably the most celebrated result since Rooney’s brace v Croatia in the 4-2 win in Lisbon in 2004 – or maybe the 3-2 win over Sweden at the last Euros (Berlin & Glasgow were friendlies).

Roll on the Ardeche, Lyon and St Etienne and a proper La Tania reunion…

Watch your backs and look after each other in Toulouse Welsh fans if the Russian military haven’t been deported by then…

Playing Arras in Arras…

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