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I missed the first half. Thought the Dutch were totally superior in the second and why does VAR take so long?
Took about four minutes to (rightly) disallow the England goal...would have taken most who know anything about football about thirty seconds.
Complete lack of movement made them all but invisible macQuote:
Originally Posted by macstheman
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy_Faber
Get your facts right she worked for an NHS contractor, not the NHS, but hey why should I be surprised that your somewhat careless with the truth?
Bit of background to events in Portugal..
Firstly, a brilliant couple few day. Great atmosphere between the fans, especially the Dutch, Swiss and us. No problems whatsoever. Really nothing. Everyone together drinking, laughing and singing.
People put club rivalries away on these trips and we had numerous laughs with decent guys from Leeds and Nottingham.
We (about 10 of us), spent most of our time down by the river or by the main fan park area by Sao Bento station. No problems bar the events on the night of the Portugal Swiss game.
They split the fan park into 3.. Portugal at the front, England in the middle and the Dutch at the beck. The English and Dutch were drinking and having a good time and not really paying much attention to the game. Portugal score late and the bottles come over at the English and Dutch from the Portugal fans. Only one thing going to happen then.
The policing in Portugal was both brilliant and absolutely shocking at times. Down by the river where the bulk of the English were drinking, the policing was low key and great. At other times it was disgusting.
Guimaraes was not capable of holding the event really. Lovely little place but not equipped to handle 20,000+ English fans. Saying that, that was down to infrastructure. They told us to be at the ground an hour before KO.. No problem, off we go and get there in plenty of time.. UEFAs new ticketing system goes down (you get you ticket on your smart phone and scan at the turnstyle). They shut the gates with thousands outside. No communication, nothing. National anthems come and go, so does kick off. No chance of getting in. Then some official makes a decision to open the gates a little and let people filter through. He tries to open the big steel gates and asks an England fan to help him a little. Then all hell breaks loose. In come loads of riot police steaming into everyone. One of the lads had his 24 year old daughter with us and a cop swung at her missing her bu inches thanks to us pulling her back. Absolute mess. Shocking treatment of normal fans just waiting to get in.
After the game, 15,000 English are herded towards the train station for trains back to Porto. No way was a station about a third of the size of Derby capable of dealing with those numbers. Chaos, we got back to Porto at 01:30 but some people were still waiting at 3 in the morning for trains. Again Portugals finest whacking people on shins with batons for no reason, desperate for a reaction which thankfully never came.
Back there on the Sunday for the Swiss game, much easier this time as the KO was in the afternoon and the weather was nice. No problems in the town at all. Carnage getting into the ground again but no issues. Leave the ground and decide to have a couple in Guimaraes before fighting to get on a train and as the English supporters made their way back to town the streets were lined with locals clapping the English fans.. Brilliant and encaptured the whole event really. Genuine nice people who enjoyed having us there spending money in their bars and shops.
If we were all dressed in Irish green, everyone would be loving the fans. Dressed in white and you are tarred by people who have not really got a clue. The English press are disgusting as well, they actively encourage confrontation on occasion.
What was recorded.. 2 arrests while England where there..
The people of Portugal - Brilliant.
The police of Portugal - Shocking.