Football game = tick!

Last night I went to the Chelsea vs Atletico Madrid Champions League game at Stamford Bridge with Matt2 (aka Cute Matt, according to a colleague who as a crush on him).

We'd gotten our tickets as part of a package from Travel Zoo, and they included dinner beforehand and a ticket to avoid the plebs and enter the stadium through an express entrance. That's how I like it!

We were sat to the side of the pitch, near the end of the stadium, right next to the Madrid supporters. It was really strange - the "away" and the "home" supporters are completely separate. While the Madrid supporters were lively and entertaining, with their chants and barechestedness and scarves and standing up and general air of fun, the Chelsea supporters were a bunch of dead fish. Honestly, everyone just sat there deadpan unless there was a goal or near goal, at which point they would stand up and clap. The other strange thing is that there is no drinking in the stands, so everyone packs into the bar at half-time.

However, it was a good game. Kalou scored two rather exciting goals, Frank Lampard managed one, and the Madrid goalie made it 4-0 to Chelsea in the end.

It's no secret that I am not a fan of Ashley Cole, husband of Cheryl Cole of Girls Aloud and now solo fame, and well known philanderer. My hatred of Ashley Cole grew even more when he fell over and cried like a baby, was told to get off the pitch and skipped off like a girl. Within 10 minutes he was back on, running around, and missing the ball like Cheryl was missing the on switch to her microphone during her "live" performance on X Factor. After that I referred to him as B!tch Ar$e Cole for the rest of the evening.

At the end of the evening, when the final whistle blew, there was some more clapping from the crowd, before everyone turned and quietly made their way out. While there were some people that had had a few drinks and were merry, most people just slowly walked down the street towards the tube station, doing what I dubbed the "Chelsea shuffle".

It was a rather tame affair, compared to my last encounter with football fans a couple of weeks ago. Amber, Emma and I had been to the movies and were leaving just after the game had finished. There was a large group of drunken away supporters out the front of the shopping centre, and the police were using their favourite kettling technique - surrounding them so they can't move. Unfortunately they decided to kettle them in the shopping centre, closed down the doors, the restaurants and shops all closed up and we were stuck inside. We spoke to a security guard and were let out a side entrance, and exited amongst all of the policemen and policedogs trying to keep the hooligans at bay.

So it was a rather placid event last night, but still a lot of fun, and yet another thing I can tick off the list!

"Blue is the color, Football is the game, We're all together and winning is our aim, So cheer us on through the sun and rain, Cause Chelsea, Chelsea is our name."
Blue Is The Colour, Chelsea FC Theme Song