Lyon and back to Paris – June 27 – 28

Lille had the magical ending, and Lyon had the magical start. And a magical first hour in the stunning sunshine. The stadium went absolutely bananas when the penalty was awarded and we got to go mental again when Brady dispatched it beautifully. Despite how it played out after that, we can always look back and enjoy the lovely feeling of that first 55 odd minutes of the match when we led and the lads on the pitch were giving every ounce to contain the French. It was an impossible task once the two quick fire goals and then the red card came. France really should have taken more advantage. For me at the final whistle it was a mixture of pride in the players and frustration for them that they might have created a few more chances in the last twenty minutes rather than running on absolute empty with ten men and barely hanging on.

I don’t think I’ve cried watching a sporting event since Macedonia equalised in the last minute of injury time in November 1999 to deny us an automatic place in Euro 2000. I blubbed for hours that night at the unfairness of it all! Football meant more to me then with not too much of life experienced. Tears came unexpectedly on Sunday afternoon in Lyon however, when the players stood for many minutes down below us in the corner of the pitch clapping and cheering us on while trying to come to terms with their own pain of letting the lead slip. We were close enough to see the awe on their faces and pure appreciation of the fans as we sang them on. A great moment between players and fans, and possibly my personal Irish highlight even though we had just been defeated.

Lyon that evening was a relaxed affair for Gareth, Mark and myself. We were happy to retire to the hotel to watch Germany cruise menacingly into the quarter finals. We then headed out to explore the lovely little streets of the 1^st arrondisement in central Lyon and find a nice bar for food and the Belgium match. Kevin Kilbane found the same bar later on too and I shook his hand. A gent and a legend! We took a walk around and there were still plenty groups of Irish out and about. One narrow street had a French/Irish sing song in full swing. We watched it for a few minutes and were happy to call it a night around midnight. The late night in Paris the night before and the 6.30am rise to collect the rental car and head south for Lyon had taken its toll. The drive out to the stadium was crazy, firstly as the tickets had to be collected from a ticket collection point miles away from the stadium. As luck would have it, me and another guy were the last two in there collecting our tickets…45 minutes before kick off time! He had a spare ticket and Gareth was looking for one so we did a deal…drove him to the airport and Gareth got his spare ticket for 50 euro! It didn’t help then that our Sat Nav didn’t have the location of the brand new stadium in Lyon so a wild goose chase ensued for a while with two different Sat Navs (phone and car) calling out different directions to Mark in the driving seat…not sure how he managed to cope and still find his way out to the stadium but he did!

The drive back to Paris yesterday was much more relaxed as the day before, and we were much fresher after recharging the batteries. Lyon has been my favourite city on the trip. Definitely a city I hope to go back to and explore more of. After one last BBQ back at the Paris campsite yesterday evening we drove the car back to the rental place and headed to a nearby bar to watch Englands exit at the hands of mighty Iceland. Where we ran out of puff in the heat of Lyon in mid-afternoon, the Iceland lands coolly kept England at bay in the evening match in Nice. Yesterday was the most dramatic day at the tournament yet, with Italy’s superb win over the holders Spain. Four interesting quarter finals ahead. Such a shame we’re not looking forward to Ireland v Iceland on Sunday night in Paris!

Sitting at the airport in Paris now and waiting to board the flight home. Here ends my Euro 2016 blog. It’s been a memorable trip for so many reasons. Despite the stolen mobile phone, many long queues, serious tolls on the motorway, and the occasional French rudeness it’s been a super trip with Mark and all the others we have met along the way. Five matches attended, many more viewed in various fanzones or bars. We’ve met and got photos with fans from most countries in the tournament. A little bit of downtime on the rare days in the campsite when we weren’t on the move somewhere! About 3,000 kilometres covered between car and train and many more on the many metro trips across Paris. Plenty beers and laughs along the way. Time to get back to normality now. A few days of recovery and back to work and then a relaxing weekend away with Caroline coming up. Euro 2016 may be in another country for me from tonight onwards but certainly not forgotten…hoping to see all the rest of the matches if I have my way!

Kevin McCarthy 28^th June 2016

The (Sweaty) Miracle of Lille!

So miracles do happen!

High up in the stand behind the goal that Sirigu was defending and deep in the second half, we and the other thirty odd thousand sweat drenched Irish were still singing but doubt was creeping in. Personally I’ll admit that I was already seeing the ‘plucky Irish bow out’ type headlines after a 0-0 victory. And then Hoolahan was gifted his one on one chance and passed it up. Looking around me at the faces in the stand we really did start to think our game was up, and that was the chance. We kept up the singing all the same. While we in the stands of the Stade Pierre Mauroy cauldron started to doubt, the players on the pitch kept passing and moving with purpose. They knew the Italians were there for the taking. In the end it was super sub Wes who created it and Robbie Brady took the iniative and moved into where Shane Long would normally have made his run and timed it perfectly. The moments after the ball hit the net will remain etched in Irish sporting history. Up in the stand the eruption of joy and relief was just mental. Looking back on it now I felt it was almost a slow motion moment. I was running out of voice and the intense heat under the closed roof had sapped my energy. I remember bouncing up and down arm in arm with Mark on one side and Eoin Conway on the other (our ticket provider!) and trying to shout out but didn’t have the lungs to shout and scream out. So I just grinned like a big eejit and took it all in!

The celebrations on the pitch seemed to go on a few minutes and they went on even longer in the stands. After hugging those we were with, we turned and hugged the strangers behind and in front of us. And then regrouped to see out the last few minutes out with the Boys in Green. It was lovely to see that they managed to keep the ball pinned in the Italian half for most of those five plus minutes. And then a lovely release of joy at the final whistle, knowing that we were through and didn’t need to rely on any other results. It’s a shame in a way that we didn’t have the TV view to see the emotional and tearful celebrations of the players and management on the pitch. We were so high up in the stand that the view of the stadium TV screen was blocked! Not to worry. The best thing about the win in my view was that it was so deserved, and especially after the Ireland management made such a massive call in dropping the two centre halves as well as the main defensive midfield lynchpin of the Trap and O’Neill eras. Personally I was by the way the Irish lads just kept going at Italy with a mixture of aggression and some lovely and incisive football. Their conviction in what they were doing was so impressive even as those second half minutes ticked down and good chances went by the wayside. Surely this will now give them massive confidence. It was only the following day that I realised this is our biggest win since the same result at USA ’94. What a privilege to be there.

Mark and myself made our way back into Lille city centre expecting raucous celebrations, but what we found was a more relaxed Irish celebration. One reason was that so many bars were closed, so fans were scattered over the city centre. A few bars were serving so queues were big there and hundreds made their way to a main square and sat around a bubbling fountain. It didn’t quite turn green but there was a slight tinge to it! Around 3am we were done. The heat and humidity of Lille was tough work and also unexpected. Being so far north I expected it to be slightly cooler but the two days we had in Lille were the hottest of the trip so far. We brokered a lift home with a local ‘taxi’ man to our hotel which was 50km away in another town, and I can safely say the high speed trip in his early 90s clapped out Merc is one of the hairiest car journies I’ll ever do in my lifetime!

Thursday was supposed to be a down day in Lille, we ended up nursing a few beers along with hundreds of other Irish still in the town and it turned into a mini session. We were done by around 11pm though and got a left back with a Belgian friend of Mark’s who had popped down from Gent to catch up. Thankfully she was a safer driver than the night before!

The TGV back to Paris didn’t live up to its name yesterday, what should be an hours journey Lille to Paris took almost two hours and for half of that journey we were crawling along. I had been so impressed with the Paris metro and enjoying all our journeys through the myriad metro lines and coloured routes during this trip. It proved too good to be true as my mobile was pick pocketed on the metro yesterday on route back to the campsite. After initial anger and feeling foolish, I did the necessary blocking of phone etc and realise that it’s not that big a deal and I can’t let it affect the holiday. Need to keep an eye on the bigger picture. I’ll survive til next week without a phone too! Thoughts now turn to the knock out stages starting today. We have Wales v Northern Ireland to look forward to in Parc des Princes. Gareth has joined us from Belfast for the weekend yesterday so hopefully we can secure him a ticket too. Two other matches to enjoy today too, so Paris Fanzone will be sampled for the first time. Then tomorrow morning we are back to a rental car and back on the road to Lyon for the big  one…back to the start of our road trip last week so we are going full circle! Ireland is in bonus territory now and France will expect to win. If Martin O’Neill is bold again in his team selection and if the team keep the composure on the ball and calmness of the Italian performance then I think this will be a close one. Maybe even extra time. And then who knows, from Miracle of Lille to the Miracle of Lyon perhaps?!

Kevin McCarthy

Bordeaux and Paris – June 17 -20

Back in Paris now on the second day of recovery after the Lyon and Bordeaux weekend. The weather in Paris hasn’t helped in the recovery process. After dropping the rental car back yesterday morning, we walked into Paris centre for a bit of sightseeing and the drizzle started as we set off. It gradually turned incessant and hadn’t stopped by this morning. A rain wetter than a soft soft day in Galway even! Going every direction and getting under your skin. Despite that we managed to see some of the main sights in between a few coffee breaks at coffee houses to get out of the rain. By 3pm we were rain beaten so a late lunch and pint in an Irish bar near the Eiffel tower and then back onto the metro back to the campsite. While I took it easy back here for the evening and watched England struggle through against Slovakia, Mark headed back into the city centre for a night out with a few Belfast mates. Slowly getting back to normal now after a decent lie on and managed a 25 minute run around the campsite and along the river in the rain…the first exercise of the holiday! Thankfully rain has stopped for now and hopefully we can get a dry day for Northern Ireland v Germany later.

There’s nothing more to say about the Ireland performance against Belgium. The craic was brilliant in Bordeaux all the same. A challenging drive across southern France and across the mountains wasn’t helped by some torrential downpours where visibility was almost nil at times. The 550km trip was made longer as a result, and the expensive tolls just kept coming! We had to drive around 12km past Bordeaux to our hotel and the opposite lane coming back into the city had a solid tail back all the way, and this was after 7pm! France definitely has traffic issues. Checked into our hotel by 8pm and headed into the city centre. A bunch of Irish young lads led the sing song on the public bus, and handed out beers to Belgian and Irish fans including ourselves. Sound lads. Their singing was non-stop and all good natured. One of the lads gave their Euro 2016 football to a small kid in a buggy just before they got off, and the young lad was delighted. Another sign of how our fans are doing us proud! Torrential rain followed us down the road into Bordeaux, and it went on for hours but luckily we were tucked under the canopy of the Blarney Stone pub when it started. And there we stayed! The buzz was good despite the rain and the Belgian fans we chatted to weren’t sure what to expect from their team. Mick Wallace sidled by at one stage looking for the pub door. He was a bit the worse for wear! Caught up with Damien Smyth and the Dundalk crew on the Friday night too, followed them to a bar around the corner when Damien managed to commandeer the DJ decks for a while. We called it a night after that as the Dundalk lads headed for a nightclub.

Saturday was a beautiful day thankfully and spirits were high among both sets of fans on the way into town. Bordeaux city centre looks beautiful, must come back and explore it properly sometime. We had quickly realised on the Friday night that chances of securing tickets last minute were slim to none. There were more Irish without tickets than with them in the city. Fanzone was the next best place to be and the craic was mighty there, helped by the weather. Belgian fans were obviously jubilant after their win but were keen to mix with the Irish and get us back into party mode.  As is the Irish way, we didn’t let the awful second half and result dampen our spirits or ruin the evening. Or maybe we were just parking the hurt and shame until the next morning, to be added to the hangover. Met up with the college buddies Jack and Mackey after leaving fanzone and after a tasty kebab dinner we headed back to the Blarney Stone. Paul ‘the Kid’ Martin found us in there too, after flying over on his friends plane! Mark and myself lasted until closing time and supper was a kebab once again! The heads were not great getting up on Sunday and facing the long drive back to Paris. The drive went grand up to the final 100kms or so when we hit serious traffic as well as the biggest toll booth I’ve ever seen. At least thirty booths with at least one hundred cars in front of us on each lane. Needless to say, that took a while to get through. We stopped off at the butchers and grocery and then treated ourselves to a nice BBQ back in the campsite. The rain started over night then but hasn’t beaten us yet!

Looking forward to seeing Parc des Princes today for the match, a stadium with a great history. The banter between Northern Ireland and Germany fans should be interesting, hopefully they can explain who Will Grigg is. Hard to see past a German win but reckon the precious win over Ukraine should see Norn Iron boys through. Then it’s off to Lille on the train tomorrow morning for the big one. We travel in hope more than expectation. To be honest I think it’s a miracle we need as I don’t think we have the players or guile to outfox Italy (even their second string) but if we start well and have some controlled possession and can create a few good chances for Longy then maybe. And we need the ref to be kinder to us this time. Fingers crossed…

Kevin McCarthy

Day 1 – Paris – June 15

Well I can confirm that Paris is not flooded! And the metro is running on time! As is the 101 bus out to Paris Camping Est in Champigny-sur-Marne. Two metros and one bus later, we arrived at our campsite base mid afternoon without any delays. And along the way we met some very friendly Parisians who were happy to point us in the right direction on the metro. No sign of armed police or heightened security during our commute; the locals went about their business as normal.

The long wait at campsite reception was an opportunity to spot the many nationalities also based here at least temporarily…Swiss, German, Romanian, Polish, Swedish, Austrian as well as Welsh, English, Northern Irish and Irish. The Welsh we spoke to seem confident enough of their chances against England. The two Swiss lads I chatted to were on their way to Parc des Princes for the Romania match, and believed neither Irish team would be in the competition by the end of the weekend. What would they know! The campsite is based on the Seine, and while I’ll admit that we didn’t actually walk to the river yet there’s plenty chance for that next week when we return back to base on Sunday. A few things in the campsite really brought me back to family camping holidays in France in the late 80s…the outdoor communal area for washing dishes being one, and memories of doing the dishes with mum or dad and chatting to other campers beside us doing the same! Our chalet is kitted out with kitchen and sink so no need for that this year.

The football today was pretty dull it has to be said. The French in the bar didn’t mind leaving it late to win, Griezmann’s late goal kicking off a big celebration and a French conga outside the bar. The celebrations went on for a while with car horns tooting around the campsite. A bit early to be celebrating so joyously perhaps?

All in all a  very relaxed and enjoyable first day in France…the calm before the storm!

Day 2 – Lyon – June 16

After a 460km car journey through central France and a €33.70 toll we reached Lyon in sweltering mid afternoon heat. Temperatures here cranked up a lot from Paris. Somehow when booking last week, I managed to find an apartment on Bookings.com on the narrowest street in the city with no parking! A crazy half hour ensued chasing car park signs which didn’t materialise into actual buildings, and going around in circles. Thankfully one sign eventually led to an actual car park and up we went. Fair play to Mark’s patience at the wheel. Slight delay to the plan of watching the England v Wales match in the fanzone but we still made it in there before half time and caught the Bale free kick ‘live’.  I can confirm that the fanzones have alchohol! Well this one does anyway, despite the supposed ban in all fanzones. True lies! There were a good few Welsh and English in the fanzone so it made for an interesting watch! Shame we were getting pre match burgers as Sturridge hit the winner, so missed how gracious the English fans would have been towards their Welsh cousins. Plenty other nations were in the fanzone too and I got my wish of meeting Icelandic fans. We chatted about the Portugal match and belittled Ronaldo together!

Lyon was a city of extremes weather wise yesterday. Blazing sun during the Wales match, thankfully a bit of sun cream had been quickly thrown on at the apartment. On route to the Northern Ireland match the heavens opened, rain drops the size of hailstones! Maybe they were actually hailstones but we were on a bus looking out so thankfully avoided them. The shower that stopped the match for a few minutes in the second half didn’t seem as heavy. The Northern fans were class, chanting and singing throughout though getting more tense as the second half went on. They deserved the win and the second goal in injury time sent them into raptures in the stands. A well deserved win. Little did we know that a man in his sixties had suffered a heart attack late in the second half in the stadium and died. A real tragedy. The Northern fans we met were sound and nothing was asked of my accent and why I was there. In fact, more than one of them when they heard my accent mentioned the applause in the Ireland v Sweden match for the young Northern Ireland fan who died and that it meant a lot to them. That made me proud of my own country and fans, and made me respect these NI lads more. That’s what these tournaments should be about. We queued up for the trams outside the stadium as a lightning storm lit up the distance. The clouds overhead were fully loaded and promised a potential downpour that thankfully never happened.

Back to the fanzone then for the very dull Germany v Poland match. It’s still so hard to see a potential winner in this tournament as none of the favourites who have played twice have convinced over both games. I think Spain and Italy might change that view over the next few days. We caught up with Mark’s colleagues Johnny and Tom in fanzone and went on to another bar with them. NI fans were scattered in every bar off the place Bellecour and in full voice. And rightly so. There’s a huge chance they’ll be in the second round now after a win.

And now attention turns to Bordeaux and Ireland v Belgium. We have a 550km drive ahead of us today before we can even consider the pre-match activities. Cut it short around 1am last night to keep some in reserve…tonight will be the big one! Haven’t read much of the pre-match hype at home or on the Belgian side yet. So hard to know which Belgium will turn up, but if we play like the first fifty minutes against Sweden then a great result can happen. What we wouldn’t give for the NI scenario yesterday as it played out…a goal early in the second half and an insurance goal in injury time to seal it. Bordeaux would be off the charts and most likely run out of beer! And the whole country back home would lose the run of itself…bring it on!

So Ireland’s tournament has properly kicked off last night after the very encouraging performance against Sweden. Big shame we couldn’t hold out for the win but we saw more attacking football in one half than we did in the entire Trap era! Great to see Wes outclassing Zlatan and scoring a beauty. Still loads to play for. C’mon Ireland!

Tomorrow morning I’m joining the Euro 2016 adventure for two weeks! Travelling with my buddy Mark Buchanan from Belfast and we have quite an itinerary…

• 15^th June – fly to Paris and set up base at the campsite near Paris
• 16^th June – drive 4.5 hours to Lyon and go to Northern Ireland v Ukraine match
• 17^th June -drive 5 hours to Bordeaux and go through the pre-match routine with the Boys in Green travelling army!
• 18^th June – go to Ireland v Belgium…still on the lookout for tickets so please contact me if anyone knows of any flying about!
• 19^th June – drive 6 hours back to the campsite base in Paris. Start the recovery!
• 20^th June – continue recovery!
• 21^st June – go to Northern Ireland v Germany in Saint Denis
• 22^nd June – train to Lille for Ireland v Italy
• 23^rd June – Lille downtime
• 24^th June – rest day in Paris
• 25^th – 27^th June – second round…wait and see if Ireland are involved!
• 28^th – fly home L

The plan is to provide a blog describing the French experience the Euros. It’s looking like delays due to heavy security and industrial strikes are going to be unavoidable. We’ll put up with those. Hopefully there will be enough petrol in pumps around the country so we can get where we are going in the rental car! And hopefully we will avoid some of the other issues which have afflicted the country and the tournament, namely floods and hooligans. Hangover and travel permitting I’ll hope to post every day or so and give some flavour of the sights and sounds of this tournament and the mood in the country.

One more sleep…bring it on!