The Russian league is back in play, and this was Spartak Moscow’s first home game of the season. Watching that huge terrace in the Luzhniki Stadium filled with waving flags and active supporters is amazing. The team beat Volga 2-1 and the fans in the stands celebrated with smoke, flares and chants. Great support from one of the Russian giants!
Photos from fratria.ru
Another hot week in Europe with a couple of exciting games. And it’s only going to get better as we get into the third round, since we’ll be adding a lot of interesting teams from around Europe. Let’s get started
One of two matches played in Sarajevo this week, and this was said to be the “lowest risk” game of the two. Viole from Marbibor showed up in Sarajevo with out police escort, and there was a few scuffles around town before the police managed to get things under control. At the match there was good actions from both the home fans and the traveling Maribor. The Maniacs sent Platini and UEFA a greeting on a banner as they lit flares and chanted anti-UEFA slogans.
After the game, Viole’s bus got stoned on their way home.
Scuffles in the stands before the game, as Buducnost Podgorica fans proved, and Slask ultras tried to reach them. Police arrived just as the first punches were about to be thrown.
Slask dominated in the stands and the friendship with Wisla Krakow was made very visual with several banners.
The most talked about game before this round was easily the return game between Sarajevo and Levski. Ever since the Levski ultras made reference to the war to taunt Horde Zla, the tension had been high, and Police were well aware of this. As a result, Levski fans were not allowed to enter the game until after the game start, and were stripped of all flags, banners and even t-shirts that police deemed could be offensive.
Horde Zla made a mosaic tifo that read “To the last day of my life, only Saraj’vo”. Great atmosphere and loud singing from the Bosians.
And we’ll close with the most positive note from the second qualification round of the Champions League. The absolutely dispicable club Red Bull Salzburg was knocked out by amateurs from Luxemburg. How’s that for karma, you bastards?!
Nice tifo from the Hammarby fans in the game against Jönköping. Nice use of the smoke grenade as Andy’s cigarette. Andy Capp is a very popular figure for ultras as he symbolises the old school attitude towards football that many ultras and supporters prefer. Good atmosphere during the game aswell, with good singing from the Hammarby fans.
Brace yourselves, this update is gonna be big! The action really got good fast in the Europa League, and it made us here at Flares and Chants realize how much we’ve missed the European leagues. Enjoy!
We’ll start with the Cypriotic team AEL Limassol and they’re fans, which go by the name Gate 3. Against Linfield they provided their home team with good vocal support and a decent tifo display. Linfield were nowhere to be seen…
APOEL fans decided to comment the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on June 20th 1974 with a banner which translates to “No one forgets, nothing is forgotten“.
Torcida of Hajduk Split sent, yet another, “fuck you” to UEFA by lighting a massive amount of flares. Massive atmosphere as usual, and great amounts of flags and banners.
The most heated match of this qualification round. Levski fans made a whole lot of enemies when they showed off a (rather disturbing) banner saying “Ratko Mladic and Arkan fucked you, now its our turn”, which will not make them popular in the return leg. The game was proceeded by a massive police presence in Sofia which managed to keep the sets of fans apart.
Levski had a packed Sector B and easily outsang the thousand or so Horde Zla, which had made their way to Bulgaria. Let’s see what happens in the return leg.
If there was an “invasion of the week” award, it would have to go to Legia Warszawa fans who went to Latvia in amazing numbers. Flares, smoke and impressive atmosphere. Check out the pics and videos below.
Delijie met up with their Russian friends in Fratria (Spartak Moscow) in Belarus to watch the game against Naftan.
Good support and a nice number of flares from the Romanian home fans in this game. Hope to see more of the Rapid ultras.
One of the most surprising games of the round was without a doubt this one. Videoton fans came in great numbers and things got really chaotic before the police managed to get things under control. Slovan fans were a bit of a disappointment though.
The second qualifying round of the Champions league did have a few interesting match ups, from a supporter culture point of view. First off was Budućnost Podgorica verusus Śląsk Wrocław. The polish fans had traveled in nice numbers and would have to be judged as the winner of the battle in the terraces, after a nice display of flares.
The biggest game for this qualifying round was without a doubt Maribor – Željezničar. Two teams with strong fan bases and good ultras groups. The Maniacs from Sarajevo came to Maribor in force and gave Viole Maribor a good fight. While the Bosnians lost the game 4-1, the battle in the stands was much more even.
Another game with some vocal support was played in Albania, where the visitors from Hungary made some noise.
It should also be noted that the Bad Blue Boys of Dinamo Zagreb were mislead by their own club’s management, who stated that Ludogorets Razgrad did not grant Dinamo fans any tickets. This turned out to be untrue, but since the fans didn’t have any tickets, their buses were stopped before they managed to reach the stadium. More ruckus to be expected in Zagreb, it seems…
Let’s hope for even better action in the Europa League.
Friendlies are usually quite boring, and sleepy. That was not the case when Raja Casablanca played Bilbao in Morocco. Packed stands, good atmosphere, and a massive display by the Ultras Eagles spelling out “HONOR”, accompanied by a banner with the words “Illusion for some…Reality for us”. In the second half, when the sun had set, the ultras gave the players and the rest of the attendance a nice strobo show. If only all friendlies were like this…
There has been no shortage of football in Ukraine this summer, with the EUROs on home turf. But as we’ve reported before, the ultras of the bigger ukrainian teams were in boycot and did not go to any games. So we imagine that the Banderstadt ultras were hyped up and excited about the first game of the season; an away game against Volyn Lutsk. A good number of flares and a nice amount of fans on the away terrace.
The home fans also showed off a few flares.
photos from ultras.lviv.ua
A friendly game in many senses of the word. The fans from these two german teams have a friendship and both sets of fans are to the left on the political scale. Some great pyro action and a lot of nice flags and banners dispalyed during this game. A few of the other left wing teams of Europe seem to have had fans present at this game, as there were smaller banners from both MTZ-Ripo of Belarus and Livorno from Italy.
The second leg of the Copa do Brasil final between Coritiba and Palmeiras was played in Curitiba. The home fans did everything they could to make their team come back from the 2-0 loss they suffered in the first leg, and they did so mainly with a really impressive strobo show at the player entrance. Their efforts were in vain though, as Palmeiras managed to draw and took the title.
Not many interesting games being played in the first qualification round, but it’s looking good for the coming rounds. Sarajevo gave good support at home, as well as Lech Poznan who rarely disappoints.
One thing i like about these qualification rounds is that you get to see a little from the far away corners of the footballing world. How about FC Baku from Azerbaijan, how much do you know about their fans? I have to admit i didn’t know anything before i recieved a few images from their game against Mura 05. It’s not spectacular, but it’s interesting to see the supporting culture spread. Also images from Borac Banja-Luka and St Patricks.
video from FC Baku’s Sector 11