Serie A
San Siro
My hotel in Bergamo was right around the railway station so I simply walked to catch a morning train to Milan. I bought a train ticket beforehand via internet so I did not waste any time. About 45 minutes later I was in Milano Centrale. I knew it's a huge station but it exceeded all my expectation. Took me a while before I could navigate there to take a subway to San Siro.
It was an early 12:30 start but there were already a lot of fans travelling for the game with about 2 hours to kickoff. I thought I would have lots of time but Milan is massive and the trip took quite a while. But finally I exited the subway station and saw the beautiful stadium right in front of me. What a glorious sight it is.
I still had enough time to browse the stalls around the stadium. Lots of cheap merch and souvenirs but I did not really want to buy anything until I saw a small replica of San Siro that is now sitting at my desk.
Now it was time to enter the ground. Unfortunately my brand new powerbank was confiscated at the gate. I could have probably hidden it somewhere and take it back after the game but there is really nothing around and I did not want to lose my place in the line. But finally I was inside. My seat was in the upper level and that means I had to take the famous spiral tower to reach my seat. And that's quite an ascend, I must say. You can take the spiral way up, or you can take a regular staircase inside this tower. I went the spiral way and it felt like it took forever to reach the top. But the whole experience is second to none and I took many stops to take the pictures. You got to try it once to marvel the architectural beauty and uniqueness of San Siro.
And then you're in the upper tier and you can finally see the pitch and the famous stands. I've seen this view so many times on TV and this is just unreal. You see the four towers. It actually caught me by surprise that those spiral towers are not visible from the inside of the ground, just the big four towers on the corners. Iconic is the right word to describe this stadium. It would be a crime to see it demolished just because the two clubs do not get enough of the money from it. It may seem shabby along the ends but it is still perfectly functionable.
I had the Milan Tifosi in the Curva Sud right in front of me. Sassuolo does not really have enough fans but still there were a few with a single banner. And then more fans arrived, so altogether there were maybe 15 or 20. Turns out, they were to witness one of the best games of their club.
I had hopes to see Zlatan but he was still injured. The next big player for me to see would be Olivier Giroud. I don't really like French football but I have nothing but respect and admiration for Giroud. He was famously on the verge of quitting as a young footballer in France but he persevered and became simply an outstanding forward wherever he played.
Milan started the game strongly and it was none other than Giroud who scored very early. Unfortunately the goal was disallowed after a VAR decision (of course nothing was clear from the upper deck). But then Sassuolo caught Milan on the counter and made it 0-1. Then they scored another and rossoneri were clearly stunned. Again, it was Giroud who scored and tried to return his team into the game but Berardi, who was simply outstanding in this game, scored from a corner and sank Milan. Right at the beginning of the second half Sassuolo scored from the penalty and then scored another one. But then there was another disallowed goal in this crazy game and again it was not clear why. Finally Divock Orighi who I still remember from his time at Liverpool, scored one of the most brilliant goals you could ever see. However, it did not look that good from my seat. But when I saw it again on TV, I was simply amazed.
The game ended 2-5 to Sassuolo. Lots of Milan fans started leaving the ground even after the 4th goal conceded, so San Siro looked rather empty in the dying minutes of the game. What a crazy game to witness! I am really happy with the match I chose.
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