First off, well done to my travel co-ordinator (and official photographer – I hope you can see the difference!) for booking us into a hotel by Brignole station. Handy on all 3 necessary counts: close to the Samp club shop (for match tickets) and inbetween both the stadium and city centre. Perfick!
From Brignole, an easy walk to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. Just head through the tunnel to the left of the station (as you look at it) and just keep walking. About 15-20 mins, though you’ll be with plenty of others in their Samp shirts, and there’s plenty of bars you can stop off for a snifter.
Ever since Italia 90 I’ve wanted to visit here.
 |
| Stadio Luigi Ferraris |
It looked fabulous on telly, a welcome antidote to all those other Italian stadia with a running track around and huge pointless stands miles away from the pitch. (Whatever happened to the Stadia delle Alpi? And what crowds at Bari these days?) The Luigi Ferraris on the other hand, 4 imposing stands right on top of the pitch and those corners filled in with terracotta-coloured structures, topped with towers, inbuilt floodlights and white steel stanchions holding up the roof. Grand. So I was a bit surprised to read the stadium is now a bit tired looking and there’s talk of building a new ground. DON’T!!! Fair play, the paint IS peeling, the upstairs concourses are cramped and there’s nothing to savour inside beyond its size and style, but there’s just something about it. Nothing a lick of paint and some refreshment kiosks/club shops wouldn’t brighten up. (Mind, I was in the opposite end to the ultras – maybe there IS more under the stands on the other sides?)
As I said, nice walk up to the ground. You could just follow the path of the river too, but beware the lack of path adjacent. And make sure you get your ticket in advance, cos I saw nowhere around the ground you could get one. I bought mine at the Sampdoria Point (club shop) at the Via Cesarea 107-109, off September 20th street. (I’m translating. I think it’s summat like Via Septembre XX). Very easy. Mind, take your passport. But again, I never had mine and, perhaps worried they weren’t gonna make a sale, my credit card and date of birth were enough. Would I like behind the goal (€21), on the wing (€31) or the posh seats (centre of the side stand, €51). Needless to say, I wasn’t electing to pay €51 to see a game. €21 it was…
I always like a walk around the ground, but when your tickets are in the other end, you’ve no choice, especially when, as here, they put huge gates across the street to stop you actually getting to within a block of the ground without a ticket for the appropriate area. So I got a champion tour of the streets one block away, until we found our gates. (Even then, they weren’t technically our gates, according to our match tickets, but they were gates for that end, so they let us in). Once inside, it’s all a bit underwhelming, all concrete and no colour, no shops, no stalls, no nuffing. Good job it’s only a few minutes to kick off then!
We did our best. Honest we did. But we had no idea where our tickets were meant to be, other than the top tier. As far as I could tell, our row didn’t exist, our seat number didn’t exist…and if it did, it was in an area which already looked full. So, spotting a few spare seats, we headed there and dusted down our filthy seats. (They’re bucket seats, seemingly used mainly as steps for other fans to walk all over.) One oddity: there were absolutely no stewards in sight. It seems that once they’ve checked your passport to get in (!), you can please yourself.
 |
| Sampdoria ultras and their flags |
It was a decent crowd too. Cracking flag display from the ultras (some, in the upper tier behind the goal, can’t have seen ANY of the match) and most excellent comedy booing of ex-striker Icardi, now in Inter colours.
Inter fans meantime filled their upper tier and had no-one downstairs. Maybe they were only given a tiny allocation? Either way, a family of Inter fans sat nearby us, a fact ascertained when Icardi (who else?) scored after 13 minutes.
 |
| Inter away fans and their banners |
 |
| Inter's first goal |
First up, Samp missed a pen. Blondie (Maxi Lopez) was running away from goal to nowhere in particular when he got tripped just before he got outside the box. What stupidity. Blondie stepped up and the keeper palmed it away, low to his right.
 |
| Sampdoria's missed penalty |
A couple of minutes later and Eder is storming towards goal for Samp. He jumps out of the way of the tackle, rolls on the floor but instantly jumps up without an appeal. The ref blows and books him for diving. A tad harsh, me thinks, but it’s enough for all these Italians (err…mainly Argentinians, looking at the teamsheet) to dive in and have a row. In the midst, Eder puts his hand against someone’s cheek and it’s enough to get him sent off. 20 mins in and the ref has essentially put an end to this game.
 |
| Samp sending off |
Second half, after an initial promising start, Inter simply picked them off, as you’d expect. Samp tired, Inter knocked the ball around like they weren’t interested…then they’d hit them on the break.
Samuel banged in a header off a corner, while Icardi scuffed one in and Palacio calmly finished for four. I got the impression Inter coulda got 6 or 7 had they wanted, but were too polite to rub Samp’s noses in it. Just time then for a young Lombardo to come off the bench for a great reception. Any relation to Atilio? Must be.
 |
| Samuel's goal for Inter |
Fair dues to the Samp ultras. They stayed till the end, got their flags out intermittently and there was a hint of the roar we could have had when it was announced that Genoa had not only let in a late equaliser, they went one better (worse?) losing 2-1. Every cloud and all that.
 |
| Sampdoria ultras letting off flares |
Despatches: Looking at La Gazzetta, it looks like they not only give you the attendance, but the number of season ticketholders and ‘visitors’. Then there’s what I presume to be gate receipts listed against the ‘visitors’ number. Can Calcio be considered so bent that they need to do this? (Don’t answer that).
Thus: ‘sperttatori paganti 4,952, incasso di €129,430, abbonati 19,012’. So I think that means the crowd was 23,964! I stand to be corrected on all of this.
No comments:
Post a Comment