Champions League 2023/2024: Group F (Newcastle, Milan, Dortmund, PSG)

[mattypnufc]

14 hours ago, LFEE said:

 

This to me is screaming 'Ultra' target.

[SteV]

2 minutes ago, mattypnufc said:

This to me is screaming 'Ultra' target.

Nah, where you’ve got a large ‘official’ gathering, there’ll be plenty of police about so they’ll not target it. 
 

You’re probably more at risk in smaller groups where they can ambush you and be gone before there’s any police on the scene.

[Paully]

2 minutes ago, Big River said:

 

how you getting there Paully?

 

I was in Bennaz when the draw was made and I usually organise stuff so I left it in the hands of my 'capable' mates!

 

Milan - One of the lads driving to Edinburgh 1am Mon - 6am flight to Milan, Weds 9am - Milan to Edinburgh, then driving home

 

PSG - This is going to be some week! At the Darts at Minehead Weds to Mon then me and one of the lads flying Bristol to Paris 2.25pm, Weds 4.15pm Paris to Heathrow then on to Newcastle land at 9pm

 

So those two did well..............

 

Dortmund - Sun 10pm Newcastle to Dublin, Mon 7am Dublin to Dusseldorf, stopping there two nights (train to and from Dortmund match day), Weds 1.25pm Dusseldorf to Munich then on to Manchester then train to Newcastle arriving at midnight!  

 

Quite an adventure that last one - I love my Sunday sessions so I hope I get on the first flight 

[Big River]

6 minutes ago, Paully said:

I was in Bennaz when the draw was made and I usually organise stuff so I left it in the hands of my 'capable' mates!

 

Milan - One of the lads driving to Edinburgh 1am Mon - 6am flight to Milan, Weds 9am - Milan to Edinburgh, then driving home

 

PSG - This is going to be some week! At the Darts at Minehead Weds to Mon then me and one of the lads flying Bristol to Paris 2.25pm, Weds 4.15pm Paris to Heathrow then on to Newcastle land at 9pm

 

So those two did well..............

 

Dortmund - Sun 10pm Newcastle to Dublin, Mon 7am Dublin to Dusseldorf, stopping there two nights (train to and from Dortmund match day), Weds 1.25pm Dusseldorf to Munich then on to Manchester then train to Newcastle arriving at midnight!  

 

Quite an adventure that last one - I love my Sunday sessions so I hope I get on the first flight 

 

haha class, that'll all be a quality experience!

[mattypnufc]

8 minutes ago, Paully said:

 

I was in Bennaz when the draw was made and I usually organise stuff so I left it in the hands of my 'capable' mates!

 

Milan - One of the lads driving to Edinburgh 1am Mon - 6am flight to Milan, Weds 9am - Milan to Edinburgh, then driving home

 

PSG - This is going to be some week! At the Darts at Minehead Weds to Mon then me and one of the lads flying Bristol to Paris 2.25pm, Weds 4.15pm Paris to Heathrow then on to Newcastle land at 9pm

 

So those two did well..............

 

Dortmund - Sun 10pm Newcastle to Dublin, Mon 7am Dublin to Dusseldorf, stopping there two nights (train to and from Dortmund match day), Weds 1.25pm Dusseldorf to Munich then on to Manchester then train to Newcastle arriving at midnight!  

 

Quite an adventure that last one - I love my Sunday sessions so I hope I get on the first flight 

Mission  

[Fezzle]

52 minutes ago, Paully said:

 

Dortmund - Sun 10pm Newcastle to Dublin, Mon 7am Dublin to Dusseldorf, stopping there two nights (train to and from Dortmund match day), Weds 1.25pm Dusseldorf to Munich then on to Manchester then train to Newcastle arriving at midnight!  

 

Quite an adventure that last one - I love my Sunday sessions so I hope I get on the first flight 

Cant see anything going wrong there at all. Nope definitely not ha

[Groundhog63]

Honestly, as one of the many who travelled around Europe the last time we were decent, the first thing I said was "good luck to this generation of supporters" 

Absolutely amazing trips even if I can barely recall them. By hook or by crook we all got there. Cars, ferries, planes and trains. 

I do recall it seemed easy to get tickets back then but we were season ticket holders and had a canny few connections to corporate. 

Also plenty more options for cheap flights and then there's Brexshit. 

Enjoy the match

[ponsaelius]

If I knew I could get a ticket I'd definitely be doing Dortmund by any means possible.

 

Brugge, Kharkiv, Benfica were all great last time. Drove across in my dad's van for Brugge - slept in the back. Kharkiv we went via East Midlands airport and Istanbul. Benfica flew to Faro and got the train up.

 

But personally if I can't guarantee a ticket I'm not bothered about going to all the effort. Don't really have an interest in just going for the sake of it.

 

I'm doing PSG this time with the old man as we have family in Paris and just going to go in the home end if it comes to it, but it's not the same like.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by ponsaelius

[LFEE]

3 hours ago, The Prophet said:

Sounds like they're struggling to shift tickets for this. Understandable given the cost involved and folks having to be selective over which games to attend.

 

3 hours ago, Paully said:

 

Nar, it's 100% due to people not being able to pass on tickets to pals

They aren’t struggling at all. They will all go. You’ve just to get use to the new system feeding those at the bottom of the chain directly rather than indirectly via a fan with lots of points.

 

Theyll all be gone within a few days I predict.

[ponsaelius]

https://mancity.com/news/mens/away-supporter-information-paris-saint-germain-v-manchester-city-63768105

 

An idea of what to expect from PSG away here.

 

Think I'll be in the home end.

[Wallsendmag]

3 hours ago, SteV said:

Nah, where you’ve got a large ‘official’ gathering, there’ll be plenty of police about so they’ll not target it. 
 

You’re probably more at risk in smaller groups where they can ambush you and be gone before there’s any police on the scene.

 

This. As is always the case with Italian Ultras they'll stay well away from big crowds of NUFC fans amd target singles and smaller groups.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Wallsendmag

[Wallsendmag]

1 hour ago, ponsaelius said:

If I knew I could get a ticket I'd definitely be doing Dortmund by any means possible.

 

Brugge, Kharkiv, Benfica were all great last time. Drove across in my dad's van for Brugge - slept in the back. Kharkiv we went via East Midlands airport and Istanbul. Benfica flew to Faro and got the train up.

 

But personally if I can't guarantee a ticket I'm not bothered about going to all the effort. Don't really have an interest in just going for the sake of it.

 

I'm doing PSG this time with the old man as we have family in Paris and just going to go in the home end if it comes to it, but it's not the same like.

 

 

 

 

I'm like that now. Might be an age thing but I'm not all that arsed about just going along for the "experience" these days.

 

The experience for me would be being inside the San Siro and Signal Igunda Park not watching in some pub somewhere.

[Curva Sud Milano]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

This. As is always the case with Italian Ultras they'll stay well away from big crowds of NUFC fans amd target singles and smaller groups.

 

 

 

Nothing will happen... the last times there were serious incidents involving away fans in Milano was when they created panic in the city in the afternoon and then paid the price for their actions outside the stadium in the evening.

[patrone]

We pre empted the Dortmund draw

??

 

 

[HaydnNUFC]

1 hour ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

I'm like that now. Might be an age thing but I'm not all that arsed about just going along for the "experience" these days.

 

The experience for me would be being inside the San Siro and Signal Igunda Park not watching in some pub somewhere.

 

Unsure it's an age thing, I'm the same. I would never bother going to a city/match if I didn't have a guaranteed match ticket for our end. Be few and far between that now, mind.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by HaydnNUFC

[Wallsendmag]

25 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Unsure it's an age thing, I'm the same. I would never bother going to a city/match if I didn't have a guaranteed match ticket for our end. Be few and far between that now, mind.

 

 

 

 

I would have done it in my teens/20s without a doubt. Was always able to get tickets for any match back then though. In my mid 40s now and wouldn't entertain it going ticketless. Everyone's different though I suppose.

[Tsunami]

I’m late 50’s going to Dortmund with no guarantee of a ticket or more likely, I will, mates won’t.

 

We all went to AZ Alkmaar without tickets and ended up in the only, biggest, AZ Alkmaar bar in the city, 10 or so minutes into the match. We were 2-0 down, we all had our Newcastle tops on and had been drinking all day. Everyone else in the pub had Alkmaar tops on, huge projector screen, banners all over the place, which was jumping. Absolute tumbleweed moment when we rolled in. Obvs we couldn’t just walk out so strolled to the bar and ordered 3 pints.

 

At HT we were invited to leave.

 

[geordiesteve710]

23 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

I’m late 50’s going to Dortmund with no guarantee of a ticket or more likely, I will, mates won’t.

 

We all went to AZ Alkmaar without tickets and ended up in the only, biggest, AZ Alkmaar bar in the city, 10 or so minutes into the match. We were 2-0 down, we all had our Newcastle tops on and had been drinking all day. Everyone else in the pub had Alkmaar tops on, huge projector screen, banners all over the place, which was jumping. Absolute tumbleweed moment when we rolled in. Obvs we couldn’t just walk out so strolled to the bar and ordered 3 pints.

 

At HT we were invited to leave.

 

 

Was that bar on the town square (waag??) by any chance? Pre-match I ended up in a bar similar to what you have described. Basically, there was a tiny bit of aggro between a wannabe hooligan of theirs and some of our lot. Massive police over-reaction saw the entire square split into two, only because I'd been chatting to an Alkmaar fan (who was extremely tidy) and I ended up on the wrong side of the police line.

 

Got dragged into this bar by the lass's mates where there was a DJ playing AZ songs, everyone jumping and twirling their scarves etc. In the main it was OK- I couldn't get to the bar and get a round in for my new friends or even buy myself a beer without an AZ fan shoving another one into my empty hand. Was generally sound but also a bit of an edge to it when the wannabe casual came in and made a beeline for me, started showing off his "clobber" which included a knuckle duster before another AZ fan who was built like a fucking tank saw what was going on and basically came and picked the radgie up by the shoulders, turned him around and told him to fuck off.

 

Was in this bar for 45 minutes tops, must have had at least 6 pints in that time and saw the best and worst of football fandom in there.

[Tsunami]

34 minutes ago, geordiesteve710 said:

 

Was that bar on the town square (waag??) by any chance? Pre-match I ended up in a bar similar to what you have described. Basically, there was a tiny bit of aggro between a wannabe hooligan of theirs and some of our lot. Massive police over-reaction saw the entire square split into two, only because I'd been chatting to an Alkmaar fan (who was extremely tidy) and I ended up on the wrong side of the police line.

 

Got dragged into this bar by the lass's mates where there was a DJ playing AZ songs, everyone jumping and twirling their scarves etc. In the main it was OK- I couldn't get to the bar and get a round in for my new friends or even buy myself a beer without an AZ fan shoving another one into my empty hand. Was generally sound but also a bit of an edge to it when the wannabe casual came in and made a beeline for me, started showing off his "clobber" which included a knuckle duster before another AZ fan who was built like a fucking tank saw what was going on and basically came and picked the radgie up by the shoulders, turned him around and told him to fuck off.

 

Was in this bar for 45 minutes tops, must have had at least 6 pints in that time and saw the best and worst of football fandom in there.

Could be, we’d had a few by then. It was a long thin bar with the bar itself on the right pretty much as you walked in. The place was wall to wall Alkmaar stuff, everyone had a top on and the place was jumping. 
 

We decided we couldn’t just turn heel and walk out so stayed. We were told a few of them weren’t too happy so we left at HT. Alkmaar was a pretty strange place, we struggled to find a “busy” bar that had the match and then stumbled into The Adelphi on speed.

[NEEJ]

2 hours ago, HaydnNUFC said:

 

Unsure it's an age thing, I'm the same. I would never bother going to a city/match if I didn't have a guaranteed match ticket for our end. Be few and far between that now, mind.

 

 

 

FWIW, Brugge was absolutely mint in the town square without a ticket. 

[Wallsendmag]

10 minutes ago, NEEJ said:

FWIW, Brugge was absolutely mint in the town square without a ticket. 

 

Bit different to the San Siro or Dortmund though. They are truely iconic venues and are on most football fans bucket lists to visit. Bruges ground was a dump but it's arguably a nicer city to visit than Milan or Dortmund.

[NEEJ]

2 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Bit different to the San Siro or Dortmund though. They are truely iconic venues and are on most football fans bucket lists to visit. Bruges ground was a dump but it's arguably a nicer city to visit than Milan or Dortmund.

Can't speak for either Meelan or Dortmund having never been. I'd never been to Brugge either (don't think I'd even seen In Bruges at that point), and new next to nowt about it other than we could get there cheap on the ferry > train.

 

We gambled and didn't end up with tickets, but loved it all the same. Probably enjoyed it more than Lisbon when we actually got to go to the game! 

[geordiesteve710]

1 hour ago, Tsunami said:

Could be, we’d had a few by then. It was a long thin bar with the bar itself on the right pretty much as you walked in. The place was wall to wall Alkmaar stuff, everyone had a top on and the place was jumping. 
 

We decided we couldn’t just turn heel and walk out so stayed. We were told a few of them weren’t too happy so we left at HT. Alkmaar was a pretty strange place, we struggled to find a “busy” bar that had the match and then stumbled into The Adelphi on speed.

Long thin bar sounds about right but with a larger area at the back once you've gone past the bar, not too dissimilar to places like Balmbras on the Bigg Market (if that's still there these days?) Mind you, my recollection is blurry, and not just duebto the passage of time

 

it was a very strange place Alkmaar- didn't see a soul walking from the station to the town square at about 2 in the afternoon. Was like a ghost town, very eerie.

[OCOCOL]

Anyone who wants tickets for these games will get them

imho. Enjoy it if you’ve never done Europe before. We’ve got Eurostar and digs booked for psg. Trying to sort Dortmund now. Giving Milan a miss as been there before albeit v inter but want to save sone cash for the knockout rounds ?

[samptime29]

Bruges was mint. Didn't have a ticket. But atmosphere was class. Really enjoyed it. Loads of funny stories