Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

10/8/96, Bratislava, Slovakia. Ligy I.

 

Inter Slovnaft Bratislava 3
Prokop (2 pens)
Malatinský

FC Nitra 1
Bari (pen)
Att: 1,190 at the štadión AšK Inter Slovnaft.

Forget the team that Chelsea have just knocked out of Europe. That's Bratislava's No.1 side, Slovan. We're talking yellow and black here... we're talking Inter. Forget the fact that the two clubs have almost identical (apart from the colour scheme) 60,000 capacity stadia side by side in downtown Bratislava. This is seriously B-grade stuff.

 

 

Inter have fallen on hard times, and drew a crowd of barely a thousand for this early season league game; a contingent of about 20 making the journey from nearby Nitra (no excuses really: it's less than 50km away and the admission was a paltry 20Sk - about 86p). However, for such a small crowd, a lot of noise was generated, and it was interesting to observe that most of the songs were "borrowed" from English football (as were the very strange yellow and black Union Jacks behind the goal). Borussia Dortmund shirts were also very popular.

 

Back to the match... The first half was pretty dire. The only participant really earning his koruna being the ref, who awarded Inter a deserved penalty, after a brilliant solo run ended with a cluttering 'tackle', and Nitra a somewhat farcical one.

 

Half time wasn't a lot better. It was entirely spent queueing for a beer, whilst watching large numbers of burly Slovaks jumping the queue with total disregard for the other punters. And they had no Wagon Wheels.

 

The second half was a lot more entertaining. Inter brought on their German "superstar" Rolfie Landere to cause the Nitra defence no end of trouble. Landere was inevitably brought down for Inter's seond penalty which was duly converted by Prokop. This was the cue for an impromptu firework display by the home fans, which was followed by a "Slovakian wave" when Malatinský rifled home Inter's third from long range. All in all, a pretty fair result.

Capacity Crowd at the AšK štadion!