International Friendly, Friday 22nd March
It was a rare international match for me for the start of the weekend as I joined several other friends at The London Stadium (or the Olympic Stadium) in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford for a friendly between Spain & Colombia.
This wasn't the first time I had seen Spain, I saw them win at Wembley early on in the first ever season of the Nations League against England, although that was before the days of Covid back in 2018, so a good six years ago, and it's fair to say I'd never seen Colombia before in the flesh, so this was a good opportunity to watch one of the big South American outfits close up.
Now the Spanish had just come off the back of a pretty successive qualifying campaign for the Euros in France this summer, topping their group by four points having won seven of their eight qualifiers, although in a group containing Scotland, Norway, Georgia & Cyprus, this really was to be expected. The Spanish had also claimed the latest UEFA Nations League title back in June after defeating Italy in the Semi Finals before beating Croatia on spot kicks after a goalless draw.
And this match against Colombia (as well as Monday's match against Brazil in Madrid) would be a good warm up before manager Luis de la Fuente has to pick his squad for the Euros, it was the first match of 2024 for both sides and like the Spanish, the South Americans were having a good run of form in 2023, twelve games played and no defeats, including wins against Germany in Gelsenkirchin, & Brazil and Paraguay in the World Cup Qualifiers in the South American section, a table they sit third in currently behind world champs Argentina & second placed Uruguay after six games each.
A good test for both then, Colombia have Copa America coming up this summer as well and also have two more friendlies coming up against Romania & The USA, that match against the Europeans also takes place in the Spanish capital, so maybe they can share a flight back there after this one, who knows?
Maybe it depended on how 'friendly' this contest would be, they two countries had not met since a friendly back in summer 2017 which ended in a 2-2 draw, would we get a similar outcome in this one?
Well, the match itself was not memorable at all, a typical international friendly if truth be told, chances were at a premium at best, and there was lots of possession based football but not much else, what was memorable was the atmosphere created by the Colombian's fans, we were sat in their end and they certainly know how to party and cheer on their side.
And although their side probably conceded more possession to the Spanish, unsurprisingly, they were able to keep them at arms length and even attack themselves on occasions, raising the noise and general excitement amongst our now 'fellow' South Americans who were very friendly and happy that we were supporting their side!!!
We managed to leave our seats at the front of the upper tier and down to the lower bowl and behind the goal Colombia were attacking in the second half amongst a sea of craziness amongst the Colombia fans, it was amazing, I won't lie, and just past the hour mark they managed to break the deadlock when Crystal Palace defender Daniel Munoz volleyed home spectacularly after fantastic play from Liverpool's Luis Diaz.
Cue, absolute bedlam in our end and in most of the stadium, there were way more Colombian's present that was for sure even though officially it was Spain's home game, it certainly felt like you were in Bogota and not Madrid, what a superb experience it was, and with the South Americans managing to hold on to win, that was even better, as said not the best of games, but the atmosphere and the people more than made up for that.
So Spain start their 2024 with a loss, whereas The Colombian's back up an unbeaten 2023 with a winning start to 2024, and it was Spain's first friendly loss since they were humbled by Georgia back in June 2016, so a rare loss for them, Colombia though are a very good outfit who work hard for each other, and that right now is making them very hard to beat. And as a now honouree Colombian, that makes me very happy!!!
Full time Spain 0 Colombia 1
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