The Wonderful World of Leuven
Leuven is a beautiful city. The weather was superb and made for a good day. We had a lovely stroll through the city centre, enjoying the open air brass band concert and an ice-cream from the 'Australian Ice-Cream' stall.
It's quite a walk from the station down to Stadion Den Dreef so we made sure we left plenty of time, and boy was it a good job. We arrived at the ground about 2 and a half hours before KO. No problem? This is where it got complicated. We saw a bar but decided to go find out where to get in and where we were to pick up tickets etc. We started walking around the ground after seeing an entrance but after an hour still had no clue and had seen nothing, we had walked round but were lost in the woods that surrounded the ground. With no signs and no idea how to speak the local language of flemish we were pretty stuck.
Eventually we decided to walk right back around the ground. This took another 30 minutes. Finally after walking down another road (which showed absolutely no sign of a football entrance) we found the main car park and entrance. There we had a drink (and a much needed sit down) and picked up our tickets.
Den Dreef is a strange ground. Two new identical stands have been added at either end, with a small main stand on one side (with a couple of new blocks been added at either side) and a long terrace opposite. With it being a derby against YR Mechelen, only standing tickets were available. After getting a souvenir, we walked round to our stand. It was absolutely jam packed even well before kick off and the away fans were already beginning to stream in.
The game was a very scrappy game between two pretty evenly matched sides played in a good atmosphere and a burning heat. Mechelen took the lead early on but it was cancelled out on the stroke of half time as leuven were awarded a penalty for a clear handball on the line. The offender was sent off and Leuven scored the penalty, much to the Mechelen fans disguist! 10 men Mechelen weren't about to lay down and die though as they strook again just minutes into the second half to secure the win. Leuven threw everything at Mechelen in the last 10 minutes but it wasnt enough and at the final whistle the travelling fans went crazy.
Enjoy the pictures.
It's quite a walk from the station down to Stadion Den Dreef so we made sure we left plenty of time, and boy was it a good job. We arrived at the ground about 2 and a half hours before KO. No problem? This is where it got complicated. We saw a bar but decided to go find out where to get in and where we were to pick up tickets etc. We started walking around the ground after seeing an entrance but after an hour still had no clue and had seen nothing, we had walked round but were lost in the woods that surrounded the ground. With no signs and no idea how to speak the local language of flemish we were pretty stuck.
Eventually we decided to walk right back around the ground. This took another 30 minutes. Finally after walking down another road (which showed absolutely no sign of a football entrance) we found the main car park and entrance. There we had a drink (and a much needed sit down) and picked up our tickets.
Den Dreef is a strange ground. Two new identical stands have been added at either end, with a small main stand on one side (with a couple of new blocks been added at either side) and a long terrace opposite. With it being a derby against YR Mechelen, only standing tickets were available. After getting a souvenir, we walked round to our stand. It was absolutely jam packed even well before kick off and the away fans were already beginning to stream in.
The game was a very scrappy game between two pretty evenly matched sides played in a good atmosphere and a burning heat. Mechelen took the lead early on but it was cancelled out on the stroke of half time as leuven were awarded a penalty for a clear handball on the line. The offender was sent off and Leuven scored the penalty, much to the Mechelen fans disguist! 10 men Mechelen weren't about to lay down and die though as they strook again just minutes into the second half to secure the win. Leuven threw everything at Mechelen in the last 10 minutes but it wasnt enough and at the final whistle the travelling fans went crazy.
Enjoy the pictures.