extreme groundhopping

Friday, July 08, 2005

FC Wacker Innsbruck

Tivoli Stadion, Innsbruck, Austria

My first visit to Innsbruck since I was last here in 1979 for the (now defunct) European Cup Winners’ Cup second round clash between SW Wacker Innsbruck and Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town.

I swear the stadium used to be to the north and a little bit to the west of its current location but was certainly not surprised that it had been completely rebuilt in the intervening 26 years.

After three days of touring round pristine and highly manicured Austrian mountain villages Innsbruck is a bit of a welcome relief. Traffic noise, the odd bit of litter and graffiti help ease you back into the real world. Mr Extreme Groundhopping was up for a quick walk out of the town centre to the Tivoli Stadium to allow me a trip down memory lane.

Town where taken to extra time here in the second leg of the ’79 tie by Wacker, a game played in an electric atmosphere despite a crowd limit of 22,000. I remember things getting a bit heated on the field too so much so that Ipswich and England striker Paul Mariner received the only red card of his career in the second period of added time.

Ipswich triumphed and progressed to the third round where they lost on the away goals rule to Barcelona (Barca having ko’d Town from the previous years UEFA Cup tournament - on penalties!). But that’s another story.

posted by chevblue at 11:51 AM