Wales vs Belgium, Cardiff City Stadium

So, last Friday David and I got into his cute little Ford Fiesta, put our seatbelts on and drove down to Cardiff, where Wales welcomed Belgium for a World Cup qualifier. The drive is supposed to take 3,5 hours, but we weren't that lucky... An accident on the M5 had us queuing for a good hour, so all in all, it took us at least 5 hours to get down to Cardiff, a quick pit stop for food included. We believed the game would be played at the Millenium stadium, but that wasnt the case either, instead, it was Cardiff City letting out their home arena for the game. The stadium was far from full, which meant we had pretty awesome seats even though we bought the just a few days ahead of the game, five rows up and basically right by the half way line. Oh yes.

 Here is David, maybe a little less than happy that I shoved my camera up in his face and grinned like a maniac while taking pictures of him. Note the scruff. Very nice and even huh? That's my boy... man.

 The Belgian part! They were smashed into a corner and had managed to fill it to the brim. Note the leftover spilling over to the right... They sang nicely! Also, they had a huge banner with "Respect for Gary Speed" at the beginning, which I thought was a nice touch.

Snap of the field. This is how close we were! I SUCK at taking pictures, there is a blurry one on my camera of Aaron ramsey throwing the ball in RIGHT in front of me. No wonder I got a bit too exited and didnt manage to keep the bloody camera steady...

I forced David to take this one. That is how good of a boyfriend he is. Note how its very sharp. Hrmpf, its no challenge when you are a man...

I was mostly there to see Ramsey and Allen, watching Joe Allen play was my excuse to go to this game, we all know I just wanted to ogle Ramsey. Yes, I'm bad. Allen didn't play at all though, apparently he had a virus (David is mumbling "bad excuse..." here). David was mostly there to watch Belgium. They crushed Wales 2-0, but to be fair, Wales had one of their center backs sent off after just half an hour and played most of this game on ten men. Belgium did field an awesome starting XI, though, with 8 out of 11 players playing in the PL. So we got to see both Hazard and Kompany play, among many others.

We had trouble even finding the stadium at first, but as we were walking, both dead set on not asking for directions, a Welsh man walked past us with a huge Wales flag tied around his waist. So we followed him, and a big group of Belgians, and eventually, we found the Stadium with a comfortable 20 minutes to kick off. I was quite amazed when the game ended how calm everyone was. It was quite late (7.45 pm kick off) and Wales had lost, I was convinced there would be at least a tense feeling going back, and we had even agreed on taking a taxi back to the car, but when we got out, it didnt feel necessary at all. Everyone was nice, not an argument in sight, so we ended up just strolling back to the car in the stream of people making their way back to the city centre.

The car ride back was fairly easy for me, I slept in the back seat curled into my knitted jumper, since David had the aircon on full blast so he wouldn't fall asleep. I wish I could have helped him drive, but I dont have an international drivers license and I definitely do not dare to drive here! Wrong (right, hehe) side of the road and all...

Anyway, I'll do an Anfield post later!

Xxxx M