Italy vs Czech Republic

A fairly drab day, matched a fairly drab match to be honest.

We left here with time planned to go to 'Dam and have a bite to eat and walk around, but when we arrived at 'Dam Centraal station it was worse than throwing it down, it was like bullet rain, and as its all open plan and theres no shelter we decided we might as well buy a sandwich etc from the station shop and eat on the train out to Arnhem.

So we bought our food and headed up to platform, 30mins to wait so while reading the sunday papers we tucked in. Mine was alright, but both sandwich and cake were out of date...the sandwich was going green at one end...NICE!

The train arrived and we took our seats, first class due to a special offer the Dutch rail! instead of the normal charge of about 58euros for the 2 of us in 2nd class, it cost 35 euros for us both in 1st class, and we could of gone anywhere!

Arrived in Arnhem and as normal, the sun was starting to shine. Was a much different atmosphere in Arnhem as all the shops were shut due to it been a sunday, tho about 75% of the bars were still open. We went and had a few drinks at the same bar as on thursday...Paisleys Lesbanic bar was closed.

With plenty of time to kill we wandered the long way round to the stadium, over the bridge and through the field we went through last time. On the way through the center i took a picture of Arnhem Church...

Then from the main square with the the church on its a short walk down to the river front and Cafe Smaak, which we discovered is actually open just round the corner. This area must be good for funny named companies...

So as i said, we wandered the long way round, and got to the ground early!

We went into the McDonalds at the ground and got some food, then as the sun was shining we went and sat outside on the grass looking out over the ground.

After a while and another read of the papers we were allowed into the ground where we got a drink and some food.

After a while the teams came out to warm up, though the ground was not filing up to anywhere near Thursday night, and the atmosphere was equally drab.

The teams emerged and the game got under way, in the first few minutes Italy were dominant and won a free-kick. This was excellently dispatched and by the very impressive Italian no.8 Alberto Aquillani (i think thats how to spell it). This raised the spirits in the Italian camp as for that moment they were through and we were out, however we'd only played for 4 mins. Then about 2mins later all went quiet, i wondered why, then i looked at the scoreboard and it beautifully read England 1-0 Serbia, i joked that Leroy Lita had scored after his woeful attempts in the other 2 matches. A few minutes after that more sloppy Italian defending let the Czechs in and Papadopolous tapped in. Then i got a text message telling me it WAS Lita who scored!!

It did'nt take to long for the Italians to get back on top though, another set piece was headed in by the captain Chiellini.

The italians continued there domination and just as i returned from the pre-halftime get food before the rush trip the also impressive Guiseppi Rossi made it 3-1. Then just as the Czech's had kicked off, it was half time.

At least during this interval the pitch announcer didn't come out and murder a song!

Second half kicked off, but to say it was dull and boring is an understatement. The best things were when the board said England were 2 up and when we left!

As we left the ground planning for a power walk, we spotted some taxi's and the driver said it would only be 15euros, BARGAIN! hoping we'd make an earlier train in we hopped. As it happens we just missed it so waited for the normal train.

Journey sailed through, then when we arrived at Utrech Centraal we saw that the train on the opposite platform was going back to Schipol, so we swapped trains and headed back. Feeling lazy and not wanting to walk for about 45mins we found a nice taxi driver! who only charged us 25 euros to take us back to the hotels and was a massive improvement on the last one!

Now...just got to get tickets to Herenveen for the England v Holland Semi...if not...its on the big screens at Arnhem pre the semi there.

Wish us luck!