Europa League 2025-26

[ADVILLAFAN]

Think we play Manure after the away leg and West Ham after the home leg.

[olaftab]

Wouldn't  mind Lille again. There was a good Aussie bar for watching the football on a huge screen for the night before and an old school Snobs style place over the way from it.

Who're you kidding, you're not old enough to remember Snobs in its true glory days.

[VancouverLion]

Wouldn't  mind Lille again. There was a good Aussie bar for watching the football on a huge screen for the night before and an old school Snobs style place over the way from it.

Who're you kidding, you're not old enough to remember Snobs in its true glory days.

I am, from aged 15 me and the lads were getting hammered in there, Sothern Comfort shots and bottles of Rolling Rock for a quid. I haven't touch Southern Comfort since 1988!

[olaftab]

Cages, crushes and stabbings - is European away safety getting worse?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c2lg7kkqe11o

Some places were fine, particularly those who said make your own way to the ground plenty of public transport available. Lille, Leipzig, Monaco, Alkmaar and Amsterdam Paris etc.  Travelling method to ground in Warsaw, Athens and Istanbul was not nice. Brugge and Zrinsky Mostar grounds are awful but away seating areas  generally are very unwelcoming. It's about time UEFA gave a fuck about away fans and ordered clubs to sort it out properly.

[Meanwood Villa]

The only ones I've done are Mostar, Brugge and Feyenoord. Feyenoord was the only one I was legitimately in the Villa end and the stadium experience was comfortably the worst. Standing in a pen for nearly an hour for no discernible reason pre match.

[AV82EC]

I decided against Athens and Istanbul due to the restrictive transport arrangements. Being herded around like live cattle isn’t really my cup of tea. I realise it’s probably for your own safety but it seems spectacularly over the top. Holland is getting worse as well with each visit.

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Hibs:

City: generally good, but fuck me The Fringe made it beyond busy
Police: fine
Ground: a bit like a green version of the Hawthorns
Getting There and Back: Walked (from Edinburgh City centre) and it was fine
Opposition Fans: Absolutely fine

Warsaw:

City: meh, obviously flattened by Gerry and had the burden of the Reds for 40 odd years. Wouldn't hurry back, Old Town had a nifty few bars
Police: like the Noses derby doubled
Ground: Meh
Getting There and Back: Overly filled busses. Unnecessary hold back and more unecessary use of riot shields to funnel us when there was only us there, onto the road
Opposition Fans: Moody, but you didn't see them about town

Alkmaar

City: stopped in Amsterdam, but Alkmaar was twee and they had a no ale on sale policy in the supermarkets, so you had to drink at the designated ale area, where you collected tickets
Police: Dutch police are tall, but friendly
Ground: Standard lego ground you'd see of any Championship side
Opposition Fans: No issue
Getting There and Back: busses. Ergh. And then a football special back to the Dam

Mostar:

City: 5g all the way from Sarjevo to Mostar. Can't maintain 5g on the way into Manchester on the rattler. Great little place.
Police: Ready for war, but absolutely sound
Ground: Hilariously shit. Letting anybody in the away end, pouring ale direct from the keg. Great stuff.
Opposition fans: Absolutely loved us, as long as you weren't over the otherside of the river for the other  Mostar side to try and pinch your flags
Getting There and Back: Walked, as nature intended

Ajax

City: Bored of the Dam now.
Police: Fine
Ground: Steep, felt quite Newcastle high
Opposition fans: no issues
Getting there and back: Tube. Easy stuff.

Lille:

City: As above, number of places to drink
Police: Alright, some tear gas on display
Ground: fine
Opposition fans: first proper trouble we've had
Getting there and back: uber in, train after the hold back out. Some twat had a SHA scarf.

Olympiacos:

City: class. Like Rome, only more tired. Great food and weather.
Police: over the top
Ground: not too bad
Opposition fans: we got on fine as we were surprisingly fair in defeat
Getting there and back: Excessively early bus, ridiculously long wait after so jibbed it and got an Uber

Bern

City: Quaint. They have bears. Beer solidly over priced.
Police: friendly
Ground: Like Alkmaar but really wet everywhere
Opposition fans: absolutely fine so their antics the other week came as an amusing suprise
Getting there and back: daft early bus, train back

Bruges

City: too fat for the tower apparently, good beer to be had
Police: friendly before, twatty about the holdback
Ground: absolutely shite. If we'd scored with those wet seats it would have been carnage
Opposition fans: fine
Getting there and back: Uber there, bus after a hold back avec water cannon

Liepzig

City: not loads going on. Good ale mind
Police: Gerry was absolutely fine as usual
Ground: weird in that you go up a hill, to go down a hill into the ground. Smart beer handles so you could stack up the ale
Fans: friendly as lots of Villa in their end
Getting there and back: own steam. Joy!

Moncao:

City: Nice is good, Monaco is wank
Police: French plod were absolute twats shoving you about getting in
Ground: Wank. 1970s leisure centre, miles from the pitch.
Opposition fans: 3/4 of the ground was Villa
Getting there and back: Taxi there, massively long train back

Bruges:
As above

PSG:

City: Absolutely class. Day of the game was superb as well
Police: Standars French police
Ground: Like West Ham's but smaller
Opposition fans: Proper trouble at this the night before up where we were
Getting there and back: Own steam

Feynoord

City: Alright. A bit dull. Well organised on the day.
Police: Good lads the Dutch
Ground: Shite. Seen better days. Getting into the ground from the station was a fucking joke. Two turnstile bollocks.
Opposition fans: Youth firm wankers attacked a pub and legged it. Gimps.
Getting there and back: Mandated train in and out

Go Ahead

City: The Dam, again. Zzzz
Police: Alright
Ground: Like a wankier Bournemouth
Opposition fans: proper up for it these sad twats. More Stonish Islandish than we've seen so far
Getting there and back: Mandatory hold back for the rattler

Basel:

City: Alright, expensive!
Police: OK. Kitted for war post game.
Ground: Seen better days. Concourse had that Wigan/QPR crush vibe and like Bern, everywhere was wet
Opposition fans: Little rats attacking folks getting off busses post game
Getting there and back: Own steam getting there via tran and onto busses for the way back.

Fenerbache:

City: Decent crack the night before. Very welcoming people
Police: Fasands of them and way over the top.
Ground: Shite. They had heaters, the soft bastards, which made it a bit warm as it wasn't cold. Seats awful, toilets were fucking unreal. Like Trainspotting with holes in the deck.
Opposition Fans: took themselves very seriously, which made laughing at them with their goal music and signing their anthem funny. The level of petty from the PA announcer was exquisite.
Getting there and back: Absolutely shite. On the last bus, ages hanging around. Dire

[London Villan]

Wonder what a review of brum would be like? (MTA excepted)

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Aston Villa

City: plentiful pubs, surprisingly few home fans drinking in the city centre though
Police: Sound. Let us get away with bringing pyro in, belting them in the face and turning up at the ground when we liked
Ground: the most beautiful place football has ever been played, only thing lacking was chimneys
Opposition fans: Depends on who it is. If you're decent then noisy as out, if Celtic, then clobbered you, if you're a bit shit then pretty quiet
Getting there: Easy peasy

We're one of the best away days (Upper tier no ale and cramped notwithstanding) going.

[dcdavecollett]

Red government?

Oh, you meant Stalinist. All clear now.

[eamonn]

I never had you down as a big drinker, does that correlate to being too phat for the tower in Bruges?

Entertaining summary. Feels like away Villa fans are due a proper change, somewhere sunny in Iberia or a trip to Scandinavia and pay homage to our defensive vikings of the past. Vigo and Malmö ftw. A shame they finished second-last.

[Ads]

I never had you down as a big drinker, does that correlate to being too phat for the tower in Bruges?

Entertaining summary. Feels like away Villa fans are due a proper change, somewhere sunny in Iberia or a trip to Scandinavia and pay homage to our defensive vikings of the past. Vigo and Malmö ftw. A shame they finished second-last.

Being too fat for the tower is a popular culture reference rather than a reference to my waist line. I can see the city perfectly from the deck, can't be arsed to see Belgian countryside from up high when In Bruges.

I'm not a big drinker. It just happens that on these trips I have a tipple or 12.