Europa League 2025-26

[RamboandBruno]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

[Olneythelonely]

I saw it in cinema but never again since. Assume it was Farrell taunting Gleeson for being fat and Villa.

No. Think it’s when he’s talking to an American tourist.

Excellent film.

[Flamingo Lane]

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.

Vigo would probably be as wet as Brum, and likely no warmer.

[TheToffnar]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

[aldridgeboy]

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

I have a video of the toilets. It's the single worst set of toilets I have ever seen in my life.

[Meanwood Villa]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

It is a preserved European city though isn't it? Can't remember it being olfactorily offensive either. Ground was a shit tip and miles away though.

[Pat McMahon]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

It is a preserved European city though isn't it? Can't remember it being olfactorily offensive either. Ground was a shit tip and miles away though.

Me, Aftab and Steve (144 Hard Boiled Eggs) had a good few drinks with some locals last March. One of the joys of away trips is talking with the home fans and we’ve had a few scoops with the locals on most trips, except Warsaw and Monaco I think. They Bruges fellas were great considering we’d just ruined their night.

Great summary of the away grounds by Ads by the way.

[TheToffnar]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

It is a preserved European city though isn't it? Can't remember it being olfactorily offensive either. Ground was a shit tip and miles away though.

Trip wasn't football related, we just dawdled through Antwerp, Brussels and eventually Bruge, spending a few days at each.

Perhaps I was being a little harsh, as I can't think of any Town or City in that vein that hasn't been completely tarted up by tourist ventures. It was certainly prettier then Brussels, but that's not saying much. Bloody good sandwiches there though and needless to say, the beer wherever you are in the country is a joy.

[Ads]

I think it comes down to city breaks, unless they're one of the great metropolis' in Europe, are just boring. Good times are generally had by the company you keep and ale you consume.

[TheToffnar]

Very true. It's a preference thing as well as I'm not generally one for City breaks and prefer the quieter places as I get older. Tuck me away somewhere in the Cotswold's for a week and I'm a happy man.

[Dave]

Watched that film again, a couple of years back on the way to Thailand via Singapore. Such a great film. Never been to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp my only Belgian experiences

Hated Bruges when I went. Like a yank architects dream of a 'preserved' European City.

Busy, smelly, foods expensive and the locals where rude. Like London but with better chips.

It is a preserved European city though isn't it? Can't remember it being olfactorily offensive either. Ground was a shit tip and miles away though.

Trip wasn't football related, we just dawdled through Antwerp, Brussels and eventually Bruge, spending a few days at each.

Perhaps I was being a little harsh, as I can't think of any Town or City in that vein that hasn't been completely tarted up by tourist ventures. It was certainly prettier then Brussels, but that's not saying much. Bloody good sandwiches there though and needless to say, the beer wherever you are in the country is a joy.

I had my stag do in Antwerp and thought it was smashing. Although that might back up Ads' point more.

[TheToffnar]

Definitely preferred it to Brussels, felt a bit more 'lived in' and some of the architecture was lovely.

As cliched as it sounds, I still don't think you can beat Edinburgh. Prague and Budapest came close, but as Ads said, that could well have been because of the company more then anything.

Scotland in general is just immense. We did a week long Speyside distillery tour up there and it was easily the best 'holiday' I've ever had. 5 days on a mini bus getting tanked on amazing Scotch, seeing the most insanely picturesque landscapes everyday, staying in quite little villages every night with THE BEST breakfasts on god's green earth.

[Monty]

Best way to explore any new city is if you're visiting friends who live there. You'll always feel like you're being shut out of something otherwise.

[TheToffnar]

100% this also. A close friend moved to Stockholm a decade ago and we visited him for the first time last year. Having someone who knew the best parks, bars and secret spots outside the main city made all the difference, felt like a cheat code. He's also a pub owner there so knew literally every other owner of note in the City. Had some incredibly messy lock ins...

[Neil Hawkes]

I saw it in cinema but never again since. Assume it was Farrell taunting Gleeson for being fat and Villa.

No. Think it’s when he’s talking to an American tourist.

Excellent film.

Here you go: