Mid-Week Action at Bulgarska Street

I 03.03.2020
I Daniel Barthold
I Lech Poznan vs Gornik Zabrze 4-1

THE CITY

I have become a bit of an expert on Polish cities as I am regularly attending fixtures over there – at least two new grounds a year seems to be my ratio. Poland has improved a lot over the last 15 years when it comes to tourism. The old towns are refurbished and there are some very decent restaurant and bar options for very low prices – considering they serve fresh meat in pretty enormous portions. I am a big fan of Krakow and cities like Wroclaw, Gdansk and Lublin are very nice as well so although I liked Poznan, it probably does not quite make the top of my favourite Polish cities but the old town is nice enough with a beautiful town hall.

THE GAME

Lech Poznan vs Gornik Zabrze

4-1

Lech Poznan were in control for most of the time, they just allowed Zabrze back into this match for a short spell before half-time where the score was 1-1. In the 2nd half it was one-way traffic and it could have been more than the full-time 4-1 score.


The attendance was fairly low with just over 12,000 supporters showing up and the Tuesday kick-off at 6pm certainly was not a popular schedule but the Ultras still made some decent noise and it was an enjoyable game which helped on a very wet cold evening in Poznan.

THE STADIUM

Stadium Miejski has been completely reconstructed for the Euro 2012 and is a proper football stadium to me with a capacity of 43,269. The ground was fairly empty on the day when I was there but I am sure when arch-rivals Legia Warsaw show up this place becomes a hostile environment. From a groundhopper point of view it is certainly a stadium in the must-see category.

HOW TO GET THERE

Poznan Airport is fairly small and only flies to selected destinations such as London, Frankfurt, Munich, Warsaw and Copenhagen. The city is actually an edge closer from Berlin than it is from the Polish capital Warsaw so a fast train goes from Berlin Central to Poznan several times daily and takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes. The airport is roughly a 15 minute bus ride to Poznan Glowny (Central station) which costs about 1£. Taxis are also cheap in Poland and I never experienced a rip-off really.

The stadium is located in the Grunwald district which is easily accessible by TRAM. I took a taxi and it cost me less than 5£. The ground is very easy to find in the corner of two main streets: Bulgarska and Grunwaldzka.

6/10

Daniel Barthold

Born in 1983 in Hildesheim (Lower Saxony, Germany) and raised in the Hamburg Area. Supporter of FC St. Pauli and since 2010 living and working in London (England) as a sports business consultant. Groundhopping has been a passion since the early days but I am actively counting and ticking off grounds since the Euros 2004. I have been to 500 stadiums in 65 countries so far.