Now: I may live in Madrid. I may deal with Real Madrid due to the university from time to time. But I am no Madridista. In fact my team is Bayern Munich – the star of the south from Germany. So when Real Madrid and Bayern Munich had to face each other in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League I was thrilled. Sadly I couldn’t attend the first leg match in Madrid in the stadium, but you best believe I watched that game. And whilst I was sad, I was glad to just soak up the atmosphere of the city surrounding such an iconic matchup and important game.
However a few days after the first leg the opportunity presented itself to me to go to Munich and watch the match live from the Allianz Arena: I couldn’t say no. So I hopped on a plane (very early on Wednesday morning), took a bus into the city and roamed around Munich for a couple of hours before heading back out of the city towards (in my biased opinion) the best stadium in the world.
I had to film a few interviews for my internship and then made my way into the stadium. My view of the pitch was incredible. I then met up with the press officer for Real Madrid, who was not amused to see me in the rivals team gear. I felt bad, but when Arda Güler scored the first goal of the match after what felt like 20 seconds, I thought he probably wouldn’t care.
The match was high intensity from the word go. With the early goal Bayern was desperate to fight back and gain momentum again. They did, with goals by Aleksander Pavlovic Harry Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise. The last goal was scored in the last second of the extra time and set the Allianz Arena on fire. It was insane to witness. The chaos of Camavinga’s red card was forgotten and nobody noticed how Arda Güler was also shown red on the sidelines – not that it mattered much because Real Madrid were officially out of the UEFA Champions League.
What I will give the Bernabeu is the fact that it is a lot easier to leave and get home than from the Allianz Arena. The crowd always tries their best, but the infrastructure just doesn’t allow a quick and effective exit from the premisses.
