Spain v Bulgaria

Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary

9/6/96, Leeds, England.

Spain 1 (Munoz)
Bulgaria 1 (Stoichkov pen)

Att: 26,006 at Elland Rd, Leeds.

After all the waiting, Euro 96 was finally here. The previous day we, along with half the crowd, had ducked out of the England v. India Test Match to find the nearest pub to Edgbaston to watch England's soccer team kick off their Euro 96 campaign with a 1-1 draw v. Switzerland.

Today we headed up to Leeds to see fancied Spain take on Bulgaria, the surprise team of USA94. 'Football's Coming Home' they said, and indeed, Elland Rd had taken on a real carnival atmosphere for the game. Painted Spaniards and noisy Bulgarians lined the streets around the ground and were complemented by the strange sight of hoardes of burly Yorkshiremen in Leeds shirts, Spanish scarves and Bulgarian hats. The two (three?) sets of fans combined with trumpets, bells, whistles and drums to make an absolute cacophany of noise.

The organisers had also set up the excellent 'More Than a Game' exhibition just outside the stadium. This attempted to present a social history of football, culminating in Euro 96, from a fan's perspective. Sadly the only vaguely Pompey-related exhibit was Darren 'Shaggy' Anderton's handprint in concrete!

Back to the game. Elland Rd was the first Premier League stadium I'd visited in perhaps ten years, and I was very impressed. The ground itself is big but compact, and the huge cantilever stand puts Fratton Park to shame. The facilities were also excellent - I never thought I'd get an edible cheese & onion pasty in a football ground! My only complaint was the seats - if you'd had a season ticket where I was sat, you'd be deformed by Christmas.

The ground was nowhere near capacity, but our overseas visitors soon filled it with noise as the game got underway. Spain played some very attractive football, knocking the ball around nicely, but with no real purpose. Bulgaria, however, were efficient, dour maybe, but very effective on the break. Their football had direction, something the Spaniards lacked. The balding Letchkov ran the show from the back and Stoichkov added the fancy touches up front. For Spain, Pizzi was very impressive until he got sent off for no apparent reason. In the end, 1-1 was a pretty fair result, Stoichkov's late penalty equalising Munoz's second-half goal.

Next stop Newcastle...

Read more of my adventures in Hardy(T)'s World Soccer Diary, or return to the main Round the World page.