Polish Ekstraklasa
Stadion Miejski we Wroclawiu (Tarczynski Arena)
I am Ukrainian and I live in Poland now. But believe it or not, I have never been to any of Euro 2012 stadiums. I left Ukraine in 2010 and I only moved to Krakow in 2018, so these are my arguments why. But I always knew that Wroclaw would be the first stadium for me to check out. It's quite an easy trip for me so I simply had to wait for a good opportunity. Finally, I had a free Saturday and it was an early 12-30 kickoff.
Wroclaw is an easy 3-hour train from Krakow and I had enough time to catch a tram directly to the stadium. I should applaud the transport solution as it is very easy and convenient to get to the stadium which is out of town and it takes about half-an-hour if you take a tram from the centre. I had no issues getting a proper paper ticket from the ticket-office, Slask stadium never sells out.
However, even though it's easy to get to the stadium, there is still nothing to do there. There is nothing but roads and concrete. No matter what you do with the surrounding territory, it will always be lifeless in a setting like this. Especially when the team is not doing great and it's the first really warm and and sunny day after a long grey winter.
So no wonder that lots of people preferred a walk in the beautiful city center to a boring game inside an empty concrete bowl. I honestly thought this would be the worst atmosphere in Poland but home fans managed to create just a bit of it. There was not a single away fan from Mielec. Why? I have no idea.
The game started really well and it was 1-1 before the 10th minute. First Slask striker Exposito headed a nice goal, but very soon Stal equalized after a corner. And then there was sweet nothing to talk about with very few notable things and even fewer chances. A draw was seen from miles away and no surprises that the game ended this way.
The most exciting thing about the game and the stadium was a little statue of the supporter gnomes. Wroclaw is famous for hundreds little statues of gnomes scattered all around the city. I would think that they installed it around the stadium but I was still delighted to find it just near the main entrance.
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