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Atlético Madrid

Ground: Estadio Wanda Metropolitano

Visits: 1

Date: 20th February 2019

Match: Atlético Madrid - Juventus  2-0  (UEFA Champions League)

Attendance: 67 193

Atlético Madrid used to play at Estadio Vicente Calderón

When the draw for the round of 16 of the Champions League was made in December I was hoping for an interesting draw, where I had a chance of getting a ticket, the week I was free from work. Atlético Madrid were drawn at home to Juventus and as I visited their website the day after the draw tickets were already on sale. I entered the ticket queue and after 35 minutes of waiting I had my ticket. I bought one for the upper tier in the south end of the ground. These tickets were 62 Euros which was the cheapest category. After four games in Portugal this was to be a great end to my Iberian tour. Tuesday was a match free day for me and I used to fly from Porto, via Lisbon, to Madrid. I was at my hotel in central Madrid around 21.30 on Tuesday evening and could then sleep late on Wednesday morning. I had a long breakfast before deciding to start my day with a trip to Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, the new home of Atlético Madrid. I needed two changes but with the metro it was still quite a straightforward journey to the ground. The metro station next to the ground was very spacious and has obviously been built to handle large crowds. The ground itself opened in September 2017 and has a capacity of 68 000. On the site where the ground was built there was previously an unused athletics ground. The athletics ground was built to possibly host the World Athletics Championships and a future Olympic summer game. This never happen though and since 2004 the ground was unused until Atlético decided to build their new home here.

Once I had taken a few exterior pictures I went back to central Madrid where I had lunch at Plaza Mayor. I then spent a few hours at my hotel before heading back to Estadio Wanda Metropolitano later in the evening. Kick-off was at 21.00 and I was at the ground around 18.45. As I left the metro station for the second time today there were already thousands of fans outside the ground. Plenty of food and drink vans offered all kind of food/drinks and I decided to have a Calamari baguette, which was absolutely delicious. 75 minutes before kick-off the gates opened and I went inside to take pictures of the stands. My seat was in the third row from the top but I still had a great view of the action. Having played for arch rivals Real Madrid Christiano Ronaldo received a lot verbal abuse but normally that doesn´t affect him. Tonight was not to be his night though. Instead I had the pleasure of attending a football match which had a crazy finish. 15 minutes from the end Morata scored for Atlético and the celebrations were massive. After two minutes the referee had consulted the VAR and decided to cancel the goal and give Juventus a free-kick. To me this was a farcical decision and home fans went nuts. Two minutes later Atlético scored 1-0 for the second time this evening and this time around VAR didn´t interfere. The atmosphere inside Estadio Wanda Metropolitano was by now brilliant and when the home team later on made it 2-0 crazy is probably the best word to describe the atmosphere. It ended 2-0 and tonight was one of the best experiences I have had at a football game for quite some time.

Once back at the metro station I only had to wait for a few minutes before being able to board a train. Around mid-night I was then back at my hotel where I quickly fell asleep as another trip was coming to an end.

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Metro station

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Estadio Wanda Metropolitano

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Estadio Wanda Metropolitano

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Atlético Madrid v Juventus!

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Walk of fame - Fernando Torres

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Rear of the East Stand

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View from the ground

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Souvenirs

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Fans outside the ground

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Fans outside the ground

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Pyros

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South Stand

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West Stand

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North Stand

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East Stand

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Light show

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Players and officials entering

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Flags and scarves

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West Stand

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View of play

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View of Estadio Wanda Metropolitano

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North Stand

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Scarves are out

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East Stand

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2-0

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Pano

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Pano