Brescia

Ground: Stadio Mario Rigamonti

Visits: 1

Date: 6th April 2012

Match: Brescia - Hellas Verona 2-1 (Serie B)

Attendance: 8 000

On Good Friday there was a full round of matches in Serie B and we had decided for the derby between Brescia and Hellas Verona. Brescia is around 120 km from Como but with a 5pm kick-off there was plenty of time to do some touristing as well. The village of Brunate is situated high (500 m) above Como and we knew the view from up there would be spectacular. However, the other days low clouds and rain meant there was no point in going to Brunate then. On Friday morning there was an almost clear sky though and after picking me up by 11am Jonas drove us to Brunate, mastering the narrow road and sharp curves. As you can see on the Como page the was indeed spectacular. The drive to Brescia, via Bergamo, then went smoothly and as we arrived at our hotel in Brescia we could notice there was nice weather in Brescia as well, 20 degrees and sunshine!

Our hotel was less than a kilometer from Stadio Mario Rigamontí, which of course was no coincidence. We made the short walk shortly before 2pm and outside the ground a group of Brescia Ultras spotted us being outsiders and asked something in Italian ending with "...Veronese?". I replied "F**k off, we are walking here whether you want it or not". Okey, I didn´t say that but that reply would certainly have shocked the ultras a bit. Then they would have beaten me up. Eventually we found the (mobile) ticket booth and could buy our tickets for "Distinti". Distinti is of course the stand opposite the main stand. The young woman selling us our tickets described it as the stand for normal people!

Stadio Mario Rigamonti has a capacity of around 27 000 but this year it is reduced to 16 500. With Hellas Verona being the great rival this was to be the highest attendance of the season for Brescia. In total around 8 000 turned up of which an impressive 2 500 came from Verona. Stadio Mario Rigamonti is a strange mix of concrete and temporary stands. Only the main stand is covered but with the weather being really nice we didn´t mind sitting in an open stand. When the match started it was soon obvious the atmosphere was to be really great. Both sets of fans were singing and chanting for most of the match. Unfortunately the match itself was not great. 1-1 at half-time but apart from the goals not very much happened. It was 1-1 until the 90th minute when Brescia made it 2-1 from a free-kick. A boring match with three goals and a great atmosphere came to an end. A vital three points for Brescia who now has a chance of making the Serie A play-offs. Verona on the other hand still has a chance of automatic promotion but for that to happen they have to play better than today.

stadio mario rigamonri, outside