A stroll from my friend's house in Hannover, on Saturday 21st November, got us to the hauptbahnhof in plenty of time for the 12:46 train to Wolfsburg.
As we waited on platform 12, along with a number of other travellers, we noticed that some Werder Bremen fans were being held, by the police, on platform 13 and we thought it very considerate that Deutsche-Bahn were going to lay on two trains to Wolfsburg, 1 for fans and 1 for regular travellers. At the last minute the information on our platform sign changed which resulted in a mass exodus to platform 13.
We boarded our platform 13 train and as we waited to leave the unlucky number 13 struck. A problem with the carriage doors, initially blamed by DB on the Werder football fans, caused a delay. For an hour we sat waiting and as we did we found out that the following 13:46 train had been cancelled. If our train didn't now leave we would miss the game. As the minutes ticked to 13:48 we realised that we had to make a drastic change if plan - a quick walk back to my mate's flat to take the car.
"What would English football fans do if they were left stranded on their way to a match?" asked my friend. "Smash up the train!" I replied.
A 150km/h blast along the autobahn got us to the VW Arena with 5 minutes to spare.
Myself and my friend sat apart in the first half as the match was deemed a sell-out, unsurprising as Wolfsburg were flying high in the Bundesliga and also doing well in the Champions League. Werder, on the other hand, had continued their decade long decline.
The first half went to form and Wolfsburg went into the break 2:0 up thanks to all the pressure they put the Werder defence under. An own goal and a header from a set piece brought the goals.
At half time my friend, a Bremener himself, told me that the man next to him soon realised that he was a Bremen fan, due to his lack a excitement after Wolfsburg's goals.
Although the match was well attended a few empty seats remained, like the one next to me, and my friend and myself sat together in the second half, thankfully, for my mate, a little further away from the Wolfsburg fans with their chanting of "Werder are stinking because of the water from the River Weser they are drinking!".
After the break, as Werder pushed forward to get back into the game, their defensive frailties were further exposed by clinical breaks from Wolfsburg. Four second half goals from Wolfsburg, Andre Schurrle involved in most of the goal threats, gave the Werder fans the depressing scoreline of 6:0 to take home with them. Maybe the Werder fans who may had been left stranded in Hannover now considered themselves lucky.
Teams from the Hanseatic northern German towns are called 'fish-heads' by fans of other teams. On this occasion the fish-heads were battered.
No comments:
Post a Comment