Leipzig

Ground: Zentralstadion

Visits: 1

Date: 11th June 2006

Match: Holland - Serbia/Montenegro 1-0 (FIFA World Cup 2006)

Attendance: 37 216

This Sunday morning I woke up in Hannover, my friend and I decided to stay here for the Sweden-Trinidad/Tobago game (Dortmund) as it would make our journey this day a bit easier. My friend, Mats, had to go back home to Sweden but I had a ticket for Holland-Serbia/Montenegro and a trip to Leipzig to look forward to. At Hannover train station I said good-bye to one friend and hello to another. Mats travelled back home but Maik joined my on the train to Leipzig. Once in Leipzig we met up with another friend of Maik´s, André, before heading to Zentralstadion. The old Zentralstadion was built by the DDR regime as a bowl with running tracks and was opened in 1956. In September that year more than 100 000 fans packed Zentralstadion for the derby between Rotation Lepzig and Lokomotiv Leipzig. Still today that is the biggest ever crowd for a league match on German soil. After the German reunification in 1990 Zentralstadion had its capacity capped to 38 000 and when the first winners of Bundesliga, Vfb Leipzig, made it back to Bundesliga in 1993 38 000 packed the ground. It was obvius the ground was in a bad shape though and when Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup and Leipzig was to host some matches a huge redevelopment took place. A new stadion with a capacity of 44 000 was built and as the new Zentralstadion was built inside the old one (see pictures below) this is certainly a very special ground.

This time around my seat was in the shadow (thankfully!) but I had a restriced view which annoyed me a bit. Maik sent me a text though saying there was plenty of empty seats around him and when the second half started I had a much better seat behind the goal. There wasn´t too many chances in the game, Holland won by the only goal which delighted the many Dutch fans in Leipzig. Before the match there was a fear of crowd trouble but the troublemakers stayed at home and as we were having something to eat and drink in the city centre after the game we could look back to a great day and some new friendships. I now also know what a Radler is.......

zentralstadion3