Flora Tallinn

Ground: A. Le Coq Arena

Visits: 1

Date: 2nd May 2015

Match: Flora Tallinn - Levadia Tallinn 0-1 (Meistriliiga)

Attendance: 1 115

As woke up in central Tallinn on Saturday morning it was cloudy and rainy as I looked out the window. The first part of the day I was planning on doing sightseeing and rain is not what you want when you are exploring a city. Anyway, at 10.30 I boarded the minibus and for an hour the group was taken to various parts in the outskirts of Tallinn. We passed the Kadioru Palace and I decided to the visit the palace again tomorrow when the weather was supposed to be better. After an hour in the bus it was time for the walking part of the tour and with the rain by now being quite heavy I was getting more and more wet during the hour the guided walk lasted. I was quite pleased once I was back at my hotel. I needed to dry up before going to the first of today´s matches, the Tallinn derby between Flora and Levadia.

Kick-off was at 16.30 and an hour or so before I was outside A. Le Coq Arena, Estonia´s national stadium for football. A. Le Coq Arena was opened in 2001 and has a capacity of around 10 000. It houses matches for the Estonian national team as well as Flora Tallinn´s home matches. A part of the complex is the Sportland Arena (also known as A. Le Coq Miniarena) with seats for about 500 spectators, this field is the home of several smaller clubs as well as of the reserves of FC Flora. Flora Tallinn was founded in 1990 and has won nine Estonian league titles. Since Flora were playing the main rivals (and reigning champions) Levadia I was hoping for an attendance of more than 1 000 for this derby. The rain stopped an hour before kick-off and the official attendance was later given as 1 115. Without all the rain maybe 1 500 would have turned up but 1 115 is still a very good attendance for a league match in Estonia. It was 0-0 at half-time and those who stayed away missed a few chances for Flora. They also missed the Flora fans setting off some smoke bombs and pyros but it didn´t get more exciting than that in the first half. It also started to rain again, quite heavy at times, but thankfully it stopped raining in the second half. Flora had most of the chances in this derby but it was the visitors from Levadia who scored the only goal, 0-1 and this was to be the final score. Not the best of matches but still nice to have visited the national stadium in Estonia.

After the match I hurried to a nearby bus stop. At 18.31 (three minutes late) I then boarded the bus taking me to Nõmme Torg. My second match of the day kicked-off at 19.00 and I almost made it in time, only missing the first 30 seconds. If only the bus had been on time...

Picture from my sightseeing can be found at: Tallinn

a. le coq arena