AarauGround: Stadion Brügglifeld Visits: 1 Date: 9th May 2013 Match: Aarau - Biel/Bienne 6-0 (Challenge League) Attendance: 3 500
In January my German friend Maik contacted me and asked what I was doing the weekend 10-12th May. If I had nothing else planned he recommended the local derby and possible promotion decider in 3. Liga between Arminia Bielefeld and Osnabrück. Having been to the reversed fixture in 2011 I knew what to expect and I decided to visit this match. Since I was free from work Thursday and Friday as well I started to plan a 4-day tour. I wanted to visit the Belgian cup final but I couldn´t get hold of a ticket and looked at other fixtures. In the end I decided to start with a flight to Zürich and the train to Aarau.. FC Aarau are currently top of the Swiss 2nd division (Challenge League) and will most likely be promoted to the Super League. Even if Biel/Bienne is hardly a crowd puller I realised there should still be a decent crowd and atmosphere for this match. My flight landed at 16.19 (20 minutes before time-table) and somehow I made the 16.43 train bound for Aarau. This was an hour earlier than expected! After arriving in Aarau 17.25 I went to my hotel, situated close to the train station. An hour later I left for the ground and by 18.45, an hour before kick-off, I was outside Stadion Brügglifeld.
Stadion Brügglifeld has a capacity of 9 200 and is quite basic. The main stand has 1 200 covered seats but the rest of the ground is made up of uncovered terraces. The weather forecast said rain but as I walked through the turnstile it was still dry. As I kick-off approached the rain started though. The terraces filled up more and more and in total 3 500 visited Stadion Brügglifeld this Thursday evening. Biel/Bienne brought five fans and at first they were in the away section behind the goal. After 15 minutes FC Aarau decided to close the away section and the five Biel/Bienne fans were moved to the home section. Unfortunately the away supporters didn´t have much to cheer about. Aarau were much better and despite missing a penalty it was 5-0 to the league leaders at half-time. When the second half was about to start heavy rain was coming down and for the rest of the match the rain varied from heavy to torrential. Thankfully I have proper rain clothes and they stopped me from getting soaked. Being in an uncoverd terrace I would have preferred sunshine though. The match finished 6-0 to Aarau, much to the delight of the home fans. I am confident Aarau will be promoted but surely the club need a better ground if they are to play in the Super League? Despite all the rain I could look back on a decent match with plenty of goals. Tomorrow I leave for Germany, 2 matches on the menu for Friday!
Aarau fans in the city centre
Walking up to the ground
Fans outside the ground
Tickets for sale
West End
North Stand
Main Stand
East End
South Stand
Grass bank
Aarau fans
Away fans
West End
View of play
Kick-off
Main Stand
View of Stadion Brügglifeld
East End
South Stand
Aarau fans
Goal!
South Stand
Taking off the shirts
Pano
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