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EURO 2004 FOOTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
ENGLAND 2 PORTUGAL 2
Portugal won 6-5 on penalties
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Thirty hour jaunt in Lisbon to see the England game.
I had tried to get Nick to fly out after we beat Croatia 4-2 to qualify for the next stage. We even booked tickets when we were drunk, but cancelled them the next day after worrying about the implications with girlfriend....That I thought was that.On wednesday night however, with the game taking place the next day I was on messenger with Ricardo telling him about how we nearly made it. He gave me a little stick which prompted me to search on the internet a little to see if there were any flights available......there were but at a cost. Phoned Nick who was in bed. He said there was no way as he had a bike test the next day so I told him to call me back if he changed his mind(bearing in mind it was past midnight). Five minutes later he was on the blower and flights were duly booked, we would worry about getting tickets for the game in Lisbon!!
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| And here is a little video explaining the problems of not only getting young Nicholas on to a plane but then trying to get him to learn how to handle his drink. We were talking to a group of scousers so it probably wasn't the best idea to let them get hold of my brand new dij camera. Needless to say I lost it one month later on a train in Spain!
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We arrived in Lisbon at 11am and by about 11:30 tickets had been purchased......300 euros a pop. Some American/Mexican guy we met had paid 3000 US for a pair!! Anyway, found this little tapas bar with excellent tucker and wondered where all the England fans were.
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Ah yes, didn't take long to find them. They(we) had taken over the central square and were already drinkin' and a singin'.
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A bloke called Simon Smith had been murdered by a mad Ukranian a couple of days before.....wrong place wrong time......and as you can see a memorial had been set up. Nick sporting a suitably graven visage |
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This "tuk tuk" type vehicle was in fact a mobile shrine to Mr Smith and whilst bedecked in Potugal regalia in the front, had England banners, shirts plus flowers and wreaths in the back. |
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The obligatory picture with old woman...I think she was a bit bewildered as everyone wanted to take her picture afterwards
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Let it not be said that there is no culture on these pages.......check out the castle apon high |
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At last the throng started to move and thousands of people started pouring into the underground station to get to the game
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And what a fine stadium it is..."Estadio de luz" A 65,000 seater and apparently more English fans than Portuguese......They'd been selling their own tickets to people like.....me!!
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What an atmosphere!! I lost Nick early on coz the greedy hog had gone to buy hot dogs but I was in the wrong seat anyway.....We were in the Portugal end and I was soon booted out by the correct seat holders
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Beckham lining up a free kick.....It had to be said he had a crap game
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The opening goal came from Michael Owen
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It all ended up square after 120 mins......Our one chance came when Portugal missed this penalty......it wasn't enough....gutted, but a brilliant experience. After the game and all night, the Portuguese were blaring their car sirens......we retreated to the airport to get some peace and quiet...
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