Borussia Dortmund (Germany)

BV Borussia Dortmund, or BVB as they are often known, is one of the most successful football clubs in Germany. The club was founded on December 19th 1909 by a group of youths who were disenchanted with being given stern looks while playing the game while at Trinity Youth. 

They held a meeting in a pub and banned the priest, Father Dewald from attending. Within four years they had adopted the present club colours of yellow and black. The club had a brush with bankruptcy in 1929 until a local supporter helped them out after an attempt to pay players backfired.

BVB began in local leagues before the Second World War came along. The Third Reich used all sports clubs for their own benefit leading to the club President being replaced when he refused to join the Nazi Party. A couple of members who surreptitiously used the club's offices to produce anti-Nazi pamphlets were executed in the last days of the war.

Westfalenstadion in 1974

Borussia played in one of a few top divisions, the Oberliga West once peacetime was restored. The team won its title in 1948-49 before going on to finish as 1949 national runners-up after defeat to VfR Mannhein.

In 1955-56 another Oberliga West title followed but on this occasion the team went on to become the 1956 national champions as Karlsruher SC were defeated 4-2 with the goals coming from Alfred Niepieklo, Alfred Kelbassa, Alfred Preißler and Wolfgang Peters.

BVB retained their German title the following year. Success in the Oberliga was backed up with a national final win when Hamburger SV were defeated 4-1 with both Niepieklo and Kelbassa netting a brace.

A runners-up league place in 1960-61 gave Borussia qualification to the national championship, where they progressed to the final where they lost out 3-0 to 1. FC Nürnberg. However, the team would go one step further after another league runners-up in the final season before the introduction of the Bundesliga.

Dortmund defeated 1. FC Köln 3-1 to lift their third German title with Dieter Kurrat, Reinhold Wosab and Alfred Schmidt scoring the goals. The team came close to completing the double reaching the DFB-Pokal final where Hamburger SV prevailed 3-0.

Goals from Lothar Emmerich and Schmidt were enough to defeat Alemannia Aachen in the 1964-65 Pokal final as Borussia lifted the trophy for the first time under head coach Willi Multhaup which sent the side on a run in the European Cup Winners Cup the following season.

BVB went all the way to the 1965-66 final where they defeated Liverpool 2-1 after extra time at Hampden Park thanks to goals from Sigfried Held and Reinhard Libuda. The same season saw Borussia finish as Bundesliga runners-up.

The side ended third in 1966-67 before Werner Weist topped the scoring in 1969-70 before financial implications began to hit the club as the new Westfalenstadion was being constructed for the 1974 World Cup leading to BVB being relegated in 1971-72. 

Promotion was achieved in 1975-76 through a 4-2 play-off win against 1. FC Nürnberg after finishing as runners up of 2. Bundesliga Nord with Hans-Werner Hartl leading the scoring. Manfred Burgsmüller scored the goals as Dortmund consolidated their top flight status with a series of mid table finishes.

The club slowly gathered momentum over the following decade, reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1992-93 where they were demolished by Juventus. The money raised from the run set the club up in the years to come.

The early eighties saw an improvement with Rüdiger Abramczik impressing up front. Fortuna Köln were defeated in the relegation play-off in 1985-86 to secure Bundesliga football with international keeper Eike Immel in the side.

The goals of Norbert Dickel and Frank Mill took Borussia to fourth the following season. The pair were on the mark as Dortmund lifted the 1988-89 Pokal with Michael Lusch joining them in the goals as Werder Bremen were defeated 4-1 with Horst Köppel coaching the victors.

Stéphane Chapuisat led the scoring as BVB finished as league runners-up in 1991-92 prior to going all the way to the 1992-93 UEFA Cup final which ended in a 6-1 aggregate defeat to Juventus with Michael Rummenigge netting the consolation goal. The cash accrued from the run stood the club in good stead for several years.

Juventus halted BVB in the semi-finals in the 1994-95 UEFA Cup but it failed to stop ‘Die Schwarzgelben’, The Black Yellows, from lifting their fourth league championship under coach Ottmar Hitzfeld with Michael Zorc and Andreas Möller weighing in with the goals.

The Bundesliga crown was retained in 1995-96 prior to the greatest triumph in 1996-97 when Manchester United were defeated in the Champions League before a Karl-Heinz Riedle brace and another goal from Lars Ricken were enough to defeat Juventus 3-1 at the Olympiastadion in Munich.

A couple more top four finishes ensued before BVB became the first German club to be traded on the stock market. This would cause more financial problems, rather than solve them, as the Westfalenstadion had to be sold and then re-leased.

However, it didn’t prevent the team from being crowned as German champions in 2001-02 thanks in part to the goals of Márcio Amoroso under team boss Matthias Sammer with Jens Lehmann, Jürgen Kohler, Dedê, Stefan Reuter and Jan Koller also starring in the success.

Players were then required to be sold as serious mismanagement took the club to the verge of bankruptcy in 2003. Gradually, BVB clawed their way back, after many cutbacks were necessary, with the stadium being repurchased in 2006.

Several coaches came and went such as Bert van Marwijk, Jürgen Röber and Thomas Doll who took the team to the 2007-08 DFB Pokal final which ended in a 2-1 extra time defeat to Bayern München. Stability was found through the appointment of Jürgen Klopp in July 2008, who would assemble a wonderful young exciting team.

Lucas Barrios and Mario Götze shone as the 2010-11 Bundesliga title was lifted by a squad also including Mats Hummels, Łukasz Piszczek, Kevin Großkreutz, Robert Lewandowski and Shinji Kagawa. The league crown was retained in 2011-12 with the guile of Jakub Błaszczykowski creating chances.

The double was completed with a 5-2 Pokal win against Bayern München as Lewandowski scored a hat trick. The 2012-13 season saw BVB end as Bundesliga runners-up, but they reached the final of the Champions League at Wembley.

In an all-German affair, BVB went down 2-1 to their old rivals Bayern München as İlkay Gündoğan scored the consolation goal. Götze departed to Bayern in the summer of 2013 as BVB had a moderate injury hit season in 2013-14.

They eventually finished as league runners-up and lost in the final of the DFB Pokal; losing out in both as well being knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern München. To make matters worse that was also Lewandowski's destination at the seasons end.

Kagawa returned for the 2014-15, as Klopp once again looked to weave his magic with a relatively budget squad. After a dreadful start to the season, with BVB near the bottom of the league at the winter break, the team made a great second half and finished well.

The team reached the final of the DFB Pokal where they went down 3-1 to VfL Wolfsburg. Klopp moved on to take a rest from the game, with Thomas Tuchel coming in to lead the side which ended as league runners-up in 2015-16 as well as losing the DFB Pokal on penalties to Bayern München.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took over the scoring mantle as the Pokal was won in 2016-17 with a 2-1 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt with Ousmane Dembélé scoring one of the goals. Peter Bosz took over from Tuchel in June 2017 before being replaced by Peter Stöger within a few months.

Lucien Favre was appointed as head coach in May 2018, taking his side to a runners-up place with the goals coming from Paco Alcácer and Marco Reus while the reliable Roman Bürki kept goal. Young English winger Jadon Sancho impressed the following season as BVB finished in the Champions League places.

BV Borussia Dortmund will play in the Bundesliga in the 2020-21 season.

My visits

Borussia Dortmund 1 Hamburg SV 0 (Saturday 23 January 2010) Bundesliga (att: 80,500)

The trip to Dortmund came about after many years of stalling at the planning stage. I had been on a very enjoyable week’s trip to Spain with my London based Irish mate Colm. We had often threatened to get round to doing something similar once again, especially after a few beers! Eventually I had a free weekend when Scarborough Athletic didn't have a game and I had no other plans.

I phoned Crusher and Carl Ellis, both Scarborough fans who I'd shared many trips and memories with and enlisted them and told them of the trip I'd put together at what seemed like superb value. The plane with Easyjet was ridiculously cheap and I found budget B&B. The most expensive outlay was for the match tickets, which was a bit of an adventure all on its own. 

Thank goodness for the translate tool on Google! If you have a season ticket at Dortmund, you can stand behind the goal (it converts easily to seats for European and International games - Premier League in England please take note) for only ten Euros. Unfortunately we had to pay 36 Euros our seat on the top tier at the other end.

I met the intrepid Seadogs off the train to Kings Cross, where we had a gargle while discussing the latest issues of the day and I told them of what they had in store. We then headed to the pretty town of Harpenden for an excellent Thai lunch in an impressive pub serving the same round for a pound less. From here it was only a few minutes to Luton Airport Parkway, where Colm met up with us after work.

Before long (time passed so quickly when we were well fed and watered!) we appeared to be touching down in Dortmund, where it was all systems go. Our residence for the stay, the excellent value and amply sufficient Prodomo Hotel was quickly found by our taxi driver and after a quick rinse we were ready to explore what a Friday night in the city had to offer.

Although our hotel was well located for transport links, having four of us together meant taxis offered good value. Our helpful driver dropped us in the Market Square and after eventually finding a cashpoint and seeing two identical looking cathedrals, of which I sincerely hope that there was two of! 

It was pub crawl time around the very neat and modern city. I had done my pre planning, including making out a map with pubs we must visit marked on it, which would be the source of much mirth amongst my companions.

The pubs and bars we visited were very German, with hops hanging over the bar and dark wood being a big feature. Nearly everywhere had TV’s showing that evenings live match with highlights afterwards. 

Owing to our aversion to Leeds United, Colm wanted us to visit The Leeds Pub. He anticipated this would be full of Leeds memorabilia. Well it wasn’t. It was far worse than that. Our immediate reaction was that it appeared to be on fire as there was so much smoke coming out of the door. 

If that had been the case it would have improved the decor. It was in fact, customers smoking. In Germany it appeared smoking was still allowed in pubs and bars, as long as they didn’t serve food. The “creatures” using the bar were in a class of their own. Think the Golden Last in Scarborough, without sectarianism. Please bear this pub in mind if you ever hear of anyone you aren’t too fond of is visiting Dortmund. Send them to the Leeds Pub!

Another highlight was when a local asked if we were in the army in a smashing place on the square? As Crusher said, maybe the Sally Army! I can only guess our local friend was being either extremely ironic or he was heavily drunk.

We all had a welcome lie in the following day, before Carl used his limited German to ensure we bought an all-day travel card. The tram stop was only a couple of minutes from our digs. The network ran under the city centre to avoid congestion and it was clean and ran on time.

We headed straight to the main railway station to book our train tickets for the following day. 37 Euros covered up to five people for an all-day pass in the area. The assistant was word perfect in his English and even printed us out all the details we required.

We managed to get a table in Wenkers in the square for lunch before it started filling quickly with shoppers and fans of both sides. The locals were going at the beer like it was last orders, despite kick off not being until 6.30pm. After a splendid bite to eat of goulash soup and apple strudel, three of us left Crusher for a couple of hours, while we had a brief siesta back at the hotel. 

We rejoined him in an excellent bar showing a very clever version of Soccer Saturday. To get around the rule about not showing full live Saturday afternoon kick offs, they went round each game, showing five minutes at a time. 

There were obvious pitfalls, like it could pick an awfully dull five minutes while it was pandemonium elsewhere, but it kept our attention. The big fella had also done some hard yards for us, and discovered some new bars for after the match.

We headed for Signal Iduna Park (or Westfalenstadion to give it it’s pre sponsorship name) by getting a tram going a couple of stops away so we could walk up and take in the atmosphere. As we got past the indoor concert hall and ice rink, beer and sausage stands were in plentiful supply. 

The crowds were packed on the roads and I had to find our ticket collection point. Someone must have liked me as I saw an information stall and our tickets were waiting for us. We had a beer but in truth it was too cold to enjoy it.

Getting in was a complicated business and not very well organised. Everyone was frisked before they got to the automatic turnstile, which slowed up the process. We had lost Carl in the crowds and the other three of us got passed the stewards, only for our tickets not to activate the turnstiles. 

We were in the wrong section, so we had to go through it all over again. Eventually we got through and climbed to the fourth tier. We were in the second row from the very back, and the view was astonishing. Crusher said it was higher than the away section at Newcastle.

The visiting Hamburg (HSV) fans were at our end although many mingled with home fans as well as in their designated area. I reckon there could have been around seven or eight thousand of them. The far end was a large mass of flags, scarves and banners on a huge terracing, which can be converted for internationals and European games, although I’m struggling to find out why it should be? 

Everyone has a place to stand on a particular row, with each row having crush barriers. Their pre match version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was as good as anything Anfield or Celtic Park has to offer.

The Westfalenstadion (also called Signal Iduna Park in a sponsorship deal) was an incredible place. It was state of the art when built with four seperate stands with a small terrace paddock at the front, in time for the 1974 World Cup, but BVB refused to stand still. as of my visit the capacity was 80,552, 65,718 when all seated, with the club having over 50,000 season ticket holders. 24,454 of them fit on the terraced Sudtribune. 

In 1995 the two main grandstands, the Eastern and the Western blocks, both received a second tier. To celebrate the Champions League victory both ends were extended to a similar height and when Germany won the bid to host the 2006 World Cup in 2000, the corners were filled in. It is one of the greatest dedicated football stadiums in the world.

I was astonished to find fans smoking and drinking in the seats. Fans of both sides mixed, and although there were heated discussions at times, there was no hint of violence. Taking away the fences tends to restrain cowards.

The game started slowly with the visitors on top, until the Paraguayan Nelson Valdez fired BVB ahead after thirty six minutes to send the majority of the 80,500 capacity crowd wild. HSV pressured in the second half while BVB hit them on the break. 

It was entertaining stuff. The hosts hung on to overtake the northerners and go fourth in the Bundesliga. Crusher and I had a brief altercation with a dummy throwing away fan who decided he’d push himself down the steep steps. The home fans seemed impressed with our stance.

We took the tram to a stop where I thought I knew Crusher had been earlier, and luckily I was bang on, much to groans from the others! The small BVB fan bar was euphoric, playing all club songs on the juke box with everyone singing along. By the look of some of the clientele, they’d watched the game in the pub on the TV. 

We went to a couple more excellent places, but everywhere was mobbed. Dortmunders take their football, food, beer and music very seriously – especially on a Saturday night after a home win. We all commented how we wished we’d have partied there after their 1997 Champions League victory.

We made a decision to take the tram near home for food and a sit down. The local fans pub obviously had a few customers in from opening time. Two were asleep with their heads slumped on the bar, while the music and fun continued. The TV’s were showing all the days match highlights on a loop and the jukebox was booming out, which led to a great pop quiz of the 70’s and 80’s amongst us. 

We needed food so we went in search of a restaurant, not realising it was nearing midnight. Crusher pulled rank and we went to another pub instead, where young Colm to his eternal credit kept us going longer than we intended. If we hadn’t booked the trains for the following day, it could have got very messy! 

Punters were still walking in as we left at 2am. The beers were excellent value. Our glasses were the same size as a bottle of pils and the round cost only 4.80 Euro. It was 10 Euro for a similar round in the city square!

We vowed to be back!

Borussia Dortmund 2 St Pauli 0 (Saturday 19th February 2011) Bundesliga (att: 80,720)

After the success of the previous year we were indeed back! This time we planned our trip to fit in three matches, setting off on the Friday morning plane from Luton. Unfortunately Crusher was missing but Colm and Carl were back.

Saturday was put aside for Borussia Dortmund v St Pauli, the smaller of Hamburg’s two big clubs. The only problem was that I had checked regularly on the website and the tickets hadn't been available. As soon as the game was listed, the sign said the game was sold out, well at least the Google translate tool did!.

I had emailed the hotel who proudly displayed that they offered deals for football fans to no joy, and I tried many different websites where the ticket prices were not too bad, but they all wanted ridiculous handling fees which nearly doubled the prices. We all agreed to wait until we arrived to assess the state of play.

We dropped our bags off at the Senator Hotel which was closer to the city centre than the previous year’s selection and headed for the Westfalenstadion as a matter of urgency. After stopping off at the station to enquire about tickets to Hannover on the quick service, which were far too expensive, we wandered down to the huge locked arena. 

It really was a sight in daylight with an unobstructed view. There were no signs of any ticket booths so we decided to go and ask in the superb, but quite expensive club megastore.

I was greeted with a smile by staff who could speak perfect English. I asked tentatively about match tickets and they nodded, smiled and sent me downstairs. I gathered my two mates and we went to where the bloke behind the counter got a map of the stadium out. I pointed where we wanted to be. 

I knew there was little chance of a place on the Sudtribune, but I thought it worth a try. He laughed and quickly announced that the only tickets were at the other end to there, and were for seats priced at 41 Euros. We were only too happy to pay.

We went on our way to look at the Stadion Rote Erde next door and the home of regional club Eintracht Dortmund before enjoying lunchtime beers before heading to the early evening clash between Vfl Bochum and Fortuna Dusseldorf.

The following morning we headed to the main square and Wenkers which had a good pre match atmosphere the previous year. It was full of fans of both sides eating and drinking while watching the second division live lunchtime games.

We got a table and were soon joined by some Dutch fans of the Bundesliga. They regularly headed over the border for their Saturday fix when their own club RKC Waalwijk didn’t have a game. Colm got chatting as they heard his Irish accent and they associated with him being a Celtic fan and their connections with St Pauli. We had one more beer at the fans bar before catching a tram to the stadium.

The gates to Stadion Rote Erde were open and the courtyard was a beer garden. We stopped for a quick drink just to be sociable before heading inside.

As the year before there was a huge scrum to the point where the stewards frisked everyone before we scanned our tickets on the gates to gain entry. We headed upstairs to our block just as the BVB version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was booming out. Every single fan in the stadium seemed to be joining in. It really did bring a lump to the back of my throat.

We went along to our seats and then the realisation of where we were hit home. Colm had been told to take his scarf off on the way in. We were in the middle of the 8,000 away fans. There were Dortmunders amongst us as well as Hamburgers in the home blocks. The tickets we had obtained were the few that had been returned from St Pauli. 

They were living up to their reputation in dress sense and creating noise as the rebel punk club of Germany, with many wearing hoodies with their famous skull and crossbones logo on them. They were a magnificent set of fans. The far kop containing nearly 25,000 home fans were also adding to the noise in the sell-out crowd of 80,720.

The visitors in two shades of brown, which looked far better than it sounds, were not bad and on a bit of a high after winning the midweek derby 1-0 at SV Hamburg. However, Dortmund were excellent as they were spearheaded by the superb Paraguayan Lucas Barrios. He scored the goal to send Borussia in one ahead.

At half time I saw the definition of a frustrated man. Carl had kindly gone to do the honours of getting the refreshments in. To do this he had to queue to buy a BVB card and put money on it before being able to buy anything. 

This clever move by the club stops any temptation from any counter employee to make any extra pocket money as no cash changes hands, as well as knowing that many cards will be discarded with unused credit on them. The scheme is OK for regulars but awful for away fans or one off supporters.

Thankfully the staff were extremely efficient once you get to the serving counter and I was settled in my seat with a bratfurst and a cup of warming gluwein (hot mulled red wine) before the teams reappeared to have a read through the 2 Euro match magazine. 

Soon after the interval Barrios caused more havoc leading to Ralph Gunesch to clumsily put the ball into his own net. It was a bit awkward for me. St Pauli really are the domain of their own fans, which I really am a fan of, but I really like BVB as well. All that really mattered was that I enjoyed the game.

The match ended in another 2-0 home win. We waited back while the away fans gave their team a decent ovation. I reasoned that St Pauli should have brought on forward Gerald Asamoah who’d impressed me while watching a game on ESPN but Carl disagreed in no uncertain terms. He definitely didn’t rate him.

If Carl had been frustrated with the card system at the interval, he definitely was now. The cups they give out have a deposit on them, so that people do their own cleaning up. To get the money back you have to join the queue once again. It was long and the service slow. Some fans had obviously done some mine sweeping as they were queuing with big piles of cups to fund their Saturday night out.

We headed for the tram station with Carl still having a chunter when I pointed to the size of the queue waiting to get in. We went around the side to see how long it was so we could make some choices and I’m so glad we did. 

The queue was actually to get into the Westfallenhalle concert venue to go and see Chris De Burgh play live. My popularity would have dipped rapidly if we had have ended up in there!

It was a bitterly cold Saturday evening when we went to the fan bar in the city and then a venue we found last year which looked lively. There was a DJ playing music but the age group was more our own. 

We managed to get some seats next to some Borussia fans and Carl exchanged email addresses for future reference. There were a lot of very drunk people out and about all having a great time and celebrating. Even the away fans were joining in.

I liked the fact that despite the place being mobbed we could remain in our seats and still get waitress service. Dortmund were ten points clear at the top of the table, yet their fans were still not confident of lifting the Deutsche Meisterschale (title plate) at the end of the season. They feared that Bayern Munich could catch them and their clash next week at the Allianz Arena would seal their fate either way.

We went around to Wenkers and had a good chat with a St Pauli fan and his mates. He was also a big fan of English football and very knowledgeable. He was very pragmatic about the day. He didn’t expect his team to have won and he was still celebrating the victory against Hamburg. I asked why Asamoah hadn’t played and if the fans rated him. 

I was delighted when he said he only had missed because of injury but he was much revered by all St Pauli fans! We had a few more beers before calling it a night after another great day out.

To see a homemade video from inside the stadium, click here:

Borussia Dortmund 3 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1 (Sunday 28^th February 2016) Bundesliga (att: 81,359)

My train from the lunchtime match between MSV Duisburg and St Pauli arrived into Dortmund station arrived ten minutes late, but all was good. I was in Germany for a couple of games and an overnight stop in Düsseldorf as I grabbed every opportunity before my new work rosters kicked in.

Rather than go downstairs for a packed U Bahn train, I walked round to catch an S Bahn. I noticed that the German Football Museum had opened opposite since my last visit to the city. That was duly noted to fit into another visit! The train took just six minutes to the Signal Iduna Park station just behind the south end of the stadium.

I’d never been that way before, but it made sense. I walked round the old Stadion Rote Erde before popping in to where the stalls were open as though it was a Dortmund II game. My first beer of the day washed down a fine bratwurst.

To beat the last minute rush, I decided to go in and get another beer inside. My ticket was for the away fans section and cost a bargain €17.50. My theory was that a token system would not be in operation in that part of the ground, and so it proved. It was some climb up to the third tier. I’d forgotten just how big the stands were.

Hoffenheim were never going to sell out their full allocation, and as a consequence there were many other ‘tourist’ fans in the section, along with plenty supporting BVB. However, some turned up in scarves and carrying banners. 

A visiting official was not best pleased and quite rightly so. A bit of respect was called for. A compromise was reached when home colours were tied to the concourse railings where stewards could keep an eye on them until full time.

It was mainly Dortmund fans around me, although I got talking to a friendly visiting fan and his pal. He mainly followed Kickers Offenbach, although Hoffenheim were his ‘big’ club. He was delighted he had someone to chat about English football with, and the days when it was possible to stand at big games.

The standing ‘Yellow Wall’ behind the south goal really was an impressive sight. The away fans were doing their best to be heard, with several guest fans joining in.

Hoffenheim were struggling in the relegation zone, while Dortmund were doing their best to chase down Bayern Munich at the top of the table. The away side were not fazed early on in the game. Borussia were missing a few players and couldn’t get going.

Halfway through the first half it was Hoffenheim who went ahead when Kevin Volland had his shot saved by Roman Burki, only for Sebastian Rudy to slot home. Rudy was celebrating his twenty sixth birthday, and he certainly made me smile. It shut up the home fans around us.

Burki made a fine save from Volland when the away player looked sure to make it 2-0. The home fans were not massively happy at the break. Head Coach Thomas Tuchel replaced Shinji Kagawa with Ilkay Gundogan for the second half. The new man hit the foot of Oliver Baumann's shortly after his introduction.

The match was to change on the hour mark. Borussia broke away with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He had two team mates with him, but Hoffenheim had players level with them. Rudy cynically brought down the forward and was shown a red card by referee Peter Sippel.

I thought the decision to be very harsh. Pressure had been building and the fans had become more vocal and appealing and booing at every turn. I think that the referee buckled under the pressure.

The game was then one way traffic. Hoffenheim held out heroically against wave after wave of home forays. I thought that they may have held out but with ten minutes to go Henrikh Mkhitaryan fired into the bottom corner. I thought the roof was going to fall in with the noise.

Five minutes later Dortmund went ahead as Adrian Ramos headed home a cross from Lukasz Piszczek. That was enough for me. The fans around me were getting on my nerves rapidly. I didn’t like the way the referee had given them a helping hand.

By beating the crowds I was getting on a train just a minute after Aubameyang had added a third. I was back at the main station to grab a snack and drink and jump on board the earlier train back to Düsseldorf.

Following a nap on the train and a shower and change at my hotel, I was in the Aldstadt and enjoying some beautiful Alt beer at the Hausbrauerei Zum Schlüssel as I was served by and chatted to by a quality waiter who was a frustrated Fortuna Düsseldorf fan. The bar was quiet but the service superb.

For nightcaps I went to Bei Fatty Irish Pub, where the music was fantastic. It ended a long and superb day once more in a truly brilliant country. I arrived back at Heathrow the following lunchtime tired but extremely content.

Click here to see the teams enter the Westfalenstadion pitch.