Wednesday 06/07/2016 evening – THE MATCH

Metro and tram were our route to the ground, which is 7km outside of Lyon and unlike many stadia in France was built and paid for by the club.  It was only opened in February this years and so is the newest of the Euro16 grounds.  In the bright evening sunlight it was an impressive sight. 

Inside the ground Danny and I were lucky enough to once again have seats close to the action, 5 rows back. 

Danny made sure that I told everyone in the UK where we were sitting   He was very happy to see some pictures of his dragon cousin and also Oscar asleep under the dragon blanket.  That made him laugh.

He also liked it when Gareth Bale and the team started their exercises in front of us. We settled down for the game, played out once more in front of a wall of red. 

To reach half-time goalless kept the dream alive.  Two goals in 3 minutes saw that evaporate, everyone decided though that living the dream for the last month had been more than any of us could have realistically expected.  That was why at the end the team were given such rapturous songs, applause and thanks, which the team reciprocated.  They were as disappointed as we were.

What they and the supporters has achieved made up for the loss and as we made our way back to the tram for the first leg of our return journey the Stade stood out as a beacon of our achievements.