Back from Kiev..thoughts

Just landed in Warsaw a couple of hours ago heading back to UK tomorrow.. a few thoughts

RITH report, admin JA606 servers are too slow to respond to Ukraine requests the page wouldn't load.

Well its a match events thread. Whole of kiev was buzzing with reds. I didnt see any trouble or anything like that, didn't experience any comments or anything generally warm place thats still trying to progress.

Despite me staying in one of the dodgiest looking unglamorous places going as a communist era tower block (see Jnr in IT here https://imgur.com/a/j3E9UNu ) still had 20meg download and a massive 40 meg upload! ( https://imgur.com/a/tnJrjqK )


Uber is great, saw people getting conned out of 20, 30, 40 even 100 euros for taxis while i was paying 3-4 quid. Most i paid was 11quid after the match. Not bad.
On the whole it is a cheap (outwith CL final) and safe place. Im gonna try Odessa next.

Went past shevchenko fan park on the way to the ground was rammed 3 hours before kick off. Stopped at Beirut Express to get jnr a wrap and i took one for later (fasting)

Security around the ground was superb, visible, militarily co-ordinated, but not at all heavy handed.

Tickets and bags inspected. On three occasions.

This is where I had a problem with UEFA. ticket inspection no problem but they took all my food off me or at least tried to.
Crisps, drinks, my dates for breaking my fast, and toffees. Luckily slipped my kebab wrap into a different compartment to keep it warm and went unnoticed as well as a bounty bar that was tucked into a fold.

This is in an effort solely to make sure that you will buy the stuff inside. And they dont even give you bottles if stuff its all poured into a glass so that you have to drink it. Two waters and two packs of crisps £8. Wtf..

Whole ground was buzzing with reds must have been 30,000 and 10,000 madrid fans. Which means 20,000 corporate and uefa chimps.
Link : https://imgur.com/a/RihJNbR

No parade allowed i think for the coaches, i was well inside by then anyway saw the coach arrive on the screen. They had a Madrid fan doing some kind of interview on the pitch no equivalent from LFC.

Banners and flags were brilliant all round the stadium from reds hundreds of them. Madrids were paltry in comparison and they had a mosaic which looked crap and plastic.

We were in the Liverpool end in line with the corner flag which is the closest the stands get to the pitch, am definitely not a fan of running track stadiums. Behind the goal youre even further back.

When Salah got injured couldnt see exactly what happened, then news filtered through that Ramos had trapped Salahs arm as they both fell so intended to hurt him. Really soured the mood. First Madrid goal disbelief, everyone thought that we'd score first but the manner of it was so so crazy. In a champions league final? Come on.

Manes, equaliser place erupted beer (non alcoholic, UEFA) rained as the Allez rang out. Fans and even stewards joining in jumping up and down. Really fantastic.

Equally fantastic but dispiriting was Bales first goal. Just stupendous, brilliant execution and everyones mouths were agape as they replayed it on the big screen. He'd hardly been on the pitch, maybe his third touch.

Tried to rally the players, early YNWA but with Bales 2nd more disbelief..

We know Mane hit the post but we just didnt have that cutting edge. Wijnaldum was brilliant in carrying the ball MOTM for me.

Really bitter about Salah being injured, everyone knows that Ramos tried to at least hurt him and we definitely missed him.
Firmino wasn't in the game much, and tbe defence couldnt do much about the goals.

It was a gutting result that showed when the whistle went. Most went and didn't stay for the lap from Klopp and the team.

Mood afterwards was desolate and sombre, even the Robocop type police went early as there was no partying late into the night. This is telling, for me it felt like it didn't matter much to the Madrid fans, whereas if we'd have won it, it would have been mental around the place well towards 6am.

The environment, atmosphere and the UA people being accommodating, stewards police everything was good.

Ref could have booked Ramos earlier, I felt and didnt have a great game generally.

So Ukraine, Kiev will definitely visit you again.

No doubt Madrid had more about them, but being able to bring Bale off the bench is luxury not many teams have. He won the game for Madrid so Zidane made the right call.

RITH and jnr both massively disappointed but starting to get over it.

Reds come on! Get well soon Salah and hope you make the world cup.

Jnr more at home here in Warsaw https://imgur.com/a/scRt6c5 . fast asleep now!

As for the reds.. are we disappointed? Yeah, will it get us down? Hell no! Kiev airport this evening : https://imgur.com/a/UX2VpUi

YNWA.