Evendays

When the Portuguese national football (soccer) team arrived in Switzerland, there were thousands of people, mostly Portuguese residents in Switzerland, there to meet them. Hundreds of motorcycles followed the team bus from Geneva to Neuchâtel, a 90 minute trip, where the team is staying between matches. One of Wife’s friends said that she happened to be on that same freeway that same day and on every overpass, EVERY overpass, there were crowds of Portuguese fans, draped in Portuguese flags, waving at the passing cars, dancing and drinking, waiting to celebrate the under-passing of the Portuguese team. Nearly 10,000 cheering fans were waiting for them in Neuchâtel (a city of only 40,000). A day or two later, the Portuguese played an inter-squad match in the local stadium, two 30 minute halves, and 12,000 people came to see them practice.

Just for your information: When the French arrived on Wednesday, 50 fans met them at the airport.

What one of the most popular Euro T-shirts seen around Switzerland says? “I root for Switzerland and for any team that beats France.”

Vive le foot.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 9:44 am and is filed under France, Euro 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.