Red Star Away win but this time in France

Thursday 19 February 2026, Lille OSC 0 Red Star Belgrade 1 - Europa League Play-Off, Stade Pierre-Mauroy

Weekend of football planned in Belgium but spotted that Lille may be in a home Europa League play-off game on the Thursday, so Eurostar booked and then just had to wait to see if my plan would work out. It did and a ticket was easily purchased as they only managed to fill half the ground ( guess may be very different in next round).

Plenty of Red Star fans in the main square and I let them leave for the stadium before I grabbed the Metro a few minutes later - first problem - the police closed the path to the ground from the Metro - so if not in the away section, had a longer walk to the ground. Very impressive stadium, roof closed, good sight lines from any seat. Be warned if going to a game in Lille, not all turnstiles were open and the body searches took a while - even so, both Red Star and Lille ultras managed to get pyro in! So I would recommend getting to the ground early and give yourself plenty of time as you queue to get in.

Football wise, Lille were very poor and very surprised to see that they ended up overturning this result with an away win in Serbia, playing Giroud from the start may of helped, he only made a late cameo appearance here. Red Star at the time seemed happy with the narrow win but in hindsight they should have gone for more goals in a game that they controlled easily for most of the 90 minutes.

With Red Star fans kept in the ground afterwards, it meant the path to the tube was open and was back in the city centre within 15 minutes. Train the next day  booked  for Gent

Worth it for the floodlights

Thursday 23 January  2025, Union Saint Gilloise 2 Sporting Braga 1 - Europa League, The King Baudouin Stadium

Big question is how this can be a national stadium! - With such a large site, maybe knocking it down and starting again would be a plan.

The floodlights are worth a look/visit but other than that, very poor. And it is not just the spectator facilities that were not what one expected for a European competition, the pitch was almost unplayable, looked more like a ploughed field - not sure Union will get away with not being fined by UEFA, I knew one of the UEFA staff present but he was just acting as a 'mentor' today - the new UEFA Official may have wondered if he was there for a ploughing competition rather than a football game.

The first half was poor footballing wise, the pitch was partly to blame but neither team looked like they would be challenging for the trophy in the later rounds. 

Braga had very little of the ball but took the lead after 16 minutes, but most in attendance would want to forget the first half. Football wise, the second half was not much better if you wanted to watch good football but at least it was very exciting, with Union winning the game thanks to goals in the 50th and 74th minute. But that was only part of the story, A Braga player got a second yellow card in the 79th minute, and he was soon followed down the tunnel by a Union player who also received a second yellow card. The final whistle then saw a number of Braga players lose their cool and a second Braga player was shown a red card and if Soccerway is right a Union player also got a straight red.

Not a great game, but you could not fault the passion shown by the Union fans, who kept signing (and drinking) throughout most of the game. 

With the faithful - and the tourists!

Thursday 20 February 2020, AS Roma 1 KAA Genk o - Europa League, Phase 2, Olympic Stadium

Quite obvious to see that what I had been informed was true, the Italians are not great supporters of the Europa League, plenty of choice for 'print at home' tickets and members of the Roma staff were spotted in the city during the day, attempting to entice tourists to buy tickets, from the number of different languages heard on the bus home, they succeeded plus a number of Scots in the city for the 6 Nations RU game on Sunday.

Not hard to get to the ground, Number 32 bus from close to the Vatican, but with a 9pm kick off not many buses around to jump back on, but they will arrive but not far to walk if you have a city center hotel.

Stadium is modern, good leg room, good views and usual football ground fare on sale. A number of bars on the river bank for beers pre-game. Do need your passport to gain entry.

Small crowd but the Roma Sud Curve and the Genk fans, stuck in NW of stadium made plenty of poise.

Game was very close and Roma will be happy they did not concede an away goal, the second leg should also be close and hard to call the result. Smalling was one of the better Roma players on show.