Wembley Stadium

Ground: Wembley Stadium

Visits: 1

Date: 9th August 2009

Match: Chelsea - Manchester U 6-3 after penalties, 2-2 at full time (FA Community Shield)

Attendance: 85 896

I visited the old Wembley Stadium in January 2000, for a ground tour, and it was obvious the ground was in desperate need of a redevelopment. Though the original structure was closed in 2000, it was not demolished until 2003, after which construction began on the new stadium, originally intended to open in 2006. This was later delayed until early 2007. The final completion date of the stadium was 9 March 2007, when the keys to the stadium were handed over to the FA. The new Wembley costed an estimated £800m (10 miljarder SEK) and has a capacity of 90,000 making it the second largest stadium in Europe.

The Community Shield is the annual match between previous season´s Premiership- and FA-Cup winners. Since Chelsea won the FA-Cup and Manchester U the Premiership last season the two most successful clubs in recent years lined up at Wembley to try and win the Shield. Since the Community Shield moved back to the new Wembley Stadium in 2007 Manchester U have won the Shield both times meaning a win today would have meant a hat-trick of victories. As I had been able to get a Club Wembley ticket for this game I was at Wembley quite early, 2,5 h before kick-off. When I arrived at Wembley Park undergrund station there were thousands of fans packing Olympic Way already though and I really enjoyed the walk up to the ground. Once inside the luxuries of Club Wembley the bars and cafes were open and I had something to drink and eat. The Club Wembley concourse goes around the entire stadium and is air-conditioned, not bad!

The actual seats are in the middle tier of Wembley. 16 rows and every 17,000 Club Wembley seat is padded. Segregation doesn't seem to apply here and fans with Chelsea and United shirts were sitting next to each other. When the game started Chelsea hit the bar after a couple of minutes and then Nani scored for United. A good start to the game and if it hadn't been for some great saves by Peter Cech Chelsea might have been 2 or 3 down. Chelsea then took more and more control of the game and equalised early in the second half. After a controversial goal by Lampard Chelsea were then in front and looked have sealed the victory. An injury time goal by Wayne Rooney meant a 2-2 draw and penalties though. Chelsea won the penalty shoot-out and could lift this year's Community Shield. After reading some mixed reviews about Wembley Stadium my expectations weren't too high but I have to say I was impressed by Wembley. My Club Wembley seat might of course influence my opinion but I hope to be back here as soon as possible.

wembley stadium