A few days had passed since I had been on the day trip for England’s opening game in Volgograd.
It had been an enjoyable day, made all the sweeter with the late winner.
However, it was now time for me to travel again for the second group game and this time I was looking forward to spending a few days out in Russia and seeing what Nizhny Novgorod had to offer.
I was also looking forward to doing this trip with two other friends, who hadn’t been in Volgograd but would be joining us for remaining group games.
On Saturday, I got to Heathrow for my flight to Moscow, but it wasn’t a great start to the weekend as we were informed that our flight had been delayed by three hours and this might mean we’d miss our connecting flight to Nizhny Novgorod.
Thankfully though, they had put everyone onto a later connecting flight from Moscow, so it wasn’t all bad.
Upon arriving in Nizhny Novgorod, a few hours later than originally planned, we took a taxi for the short ten minute journey to our hotel.
Having checked in, I headed into centre of town to experience the night of Nizhny Novgorod and start my weekend off. I bumped into a few fellow fans and enjoyed some drinks before I eventually called it a night couple of hours later.
And so to matchday...
The plan had been to start early and to take in some of the sights of the city before we headed off to the stadium. We left our hotel and headed to the centre of the city via the nearest metro station.
Having got to the centre, we walked past a range of bars and restaurants. The atmosphere was really starting to build. Panama fans at their first World Cup were just enjoying the experience of being there and fellow England fans were also out in force and enjoying the sun, and it seemed that perhaps there were slightly more than there had been in Volgograd.
We walked down towards the Kremlin of Nizhny Novgorod and the FanFest. There was a great buzz about the place and any locals we came across on our walk were very welcoming.
We stopped for a spot of lunch and a few drinks, before starting to make our way towards the stadium two hours before kick-off. We opted to take the shuttle buses to the stadium and got there fairly quickly.
As with the Tunisia game, both mine and my friend’s priorities had been to get our flags up once inside. Having done that, we enjoyed the build-up and pre-match atmosphere as it got closer to kick-off.
Singing the national anthem with pride and having been singing about ‘England’s going all the way’, the match got underway. What a first half we had!
Within the first ten minutes, England had scored the first goal and four more goals followed before half time. With each goal, the extent of the celebrations were the same, we were loving it. 5-0 up at half time and we were on Cloud Nine.
Regardless of the opponent, that scoreline in a World Cup match is always impressive.
Following the fifth goal before half time, I had my phone buzzing numerous times. I checked at half time to find endless messages from friends and family. It had appeared that the TV cameras had caught me celebrating after the fifth goal, and everyone back home had seen me. It was brilliant.
The game ended with the final score at 6-1. We were all ecstatic with the win and went to celebrate in the city.
Panama fans joined us, and were still very happy despite the result. We ended the day by visiting the FIFA FanFest to watch the evening matches that day.
The atmosphere here was also great with fans of various nations. It had been a great day, and one that couldn’t have gone any better.
On Monday morning, it was again time to travel again. Having an early start, we headed off to the airport for our flights home.
The next trip will be to Kaliningrad, via Gdansk, for the last group game and we’re looking forward to more experiences and memories from this World Cup.
