Euro 2024 Qualification
Stadion Antona Malatinskeho, Trnava
Due to the uncertainties with this year’s home games, I did not go to the preceding away game to Skopje. There was a real chance to travel there but Trnava was announced too late and thus I knew I would only go to Slovakia. Still, a pretty nice and easy away trip and I’ve never been to Slovakia before, though I passed through the country several times on my way back to Krakow. And I always wondered about Trnava stadium and how it is essentially in a mall, but all the pics were quite nice.
So, I took Monday off and then took a Flixbus to Zilina. I had about half-an hour there, just enough time to withdraw some euro bills from the ATM. The railway station is right around the corner from the bus station and their football stadium is also right there. Alas, maybe next time. Trnava is on a railway line to Bratislava from Zilina, so it’s a very easy destination and the trip takes about 2 hours.
I arrived with approximately 2 hours to spare on what turned out to be an extremely hot day. Trnava is a small and compact city and the stadium area is quite a prominent feature of it. The ground was a standard socialist oval but was then rebuilt and is now adjoined to a mall. Sounds awful but in fact it’s not that bad as it’s still in the city center and is surrounded by residential buildings. I was actually pleasantly surprised and liked the stadium very much. You can have a drink and some food in the beer garden right at the entrance but it was fool so I instead I ate at the food court in the mall. I believe there is also a hotel with a pitch view there.
I entered the stadium with an hour to go and had a very nice sausage for 5 euro. I don’t usually eat stadium food, but I figured out I would not have a chance to try Slovak food after the game. Again, it exceeded my expectations is that sausage might have been the best food I ate inside any stadium (again, I don’t do it often).
Obviously the stadium was far from full due to obvious reasons. Most of the fans either lived in Slovakia and Czech Republic, or simply came from nearby Germany and Poland. Men still can’t leave Ukraine due to war and most of Ukrainians have more important things to do these days. However, there is still a sensible desire to escape the grimness of our daily lives and football provides just that. I also saw a single banner from Malta. Considering the circumstances, the atmosphere was excellent. I was in the makeshift ultra section with my friends, and we tried to make it count us heard. It was also the match that we decided to dedicate to the memory of Mykola Zhydkov- another fallen soldier, who used to live in and play football in Krakow but still went to Ukraine to defend his motherland.
Game was crap, we played terribly and it looked like Malta was as good as Ukraine. We had a couple of chances but they also could have scored with a bit of more luck. Finally, in the second half we earned a penalty but Yarmolenko missed it. I fully expected a goalless draw but there was another penalty earned and this time Tsygankov was on target. 1-0 win was the result of this nervous game. Another hard-won victory by Rebrov.
I finally saw a bit of Trnava after the game and I liked it very much. I would not be against of coming back here to see more of the city. We also saw Artem Dovbyk in a small street café with his friends but I decided not to bother him. However, my friends still managed to have a photo with him.
A night bus home and I’m back in Krakow. I enjoyed my trip and finally saw a goal by my team. All my previous live games of either Dynamo or Ukraine did not finish with us scoring. Not sure when will be the next time I can attend Ukraine but I would definitely love to do it again.
P.S. I’m actually going to see Ukraine versus England on Sep 9 in Wroclaw. So good luck to us!
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