Soccer AM

Dutch fans: bright as ever!

It was raining so hard you couldn't see the markings on the road, but that didn't seem to faze him because he didn't use his brakes the entire journey!

Chris
Quotes of the week

I was desperate to get to the European Championships this year and for a while I didn't think it was going to happen, but I managed to get my hands on a ticket for Holland v Italy -and I'm so glad that I did!

I flew out to Basel on Sunday and it turned out to be an incredible few days - although it couldn't have started any worse after I got into a taxi owned by the worst driver in Switzerland!

I jumped into the first taxi that I saw at the airport and it could have been a fatal mistake, because the driver was a complete nut case. It was raining so hard you couldn't see the markings on the road, but that didn't seem to faze him because he didn't use his brakes the entire journey!

Luckily I'd had a couple of drinks on the plane otherwise I think I would have had a serious heart attack, but thankfully I managed to get to my hotel in one piece.

I was staying in a boat hotel, and although that sounds pretty cool it's a bit strange to be honest. But I wasn't there to waste time indoors so I put my bags down and jumped straight back onto dry land.

My first port of call was a great little bar which served us double Jagermeister's straight out of the freezer and by the end of the night I had forgotten all about 'that' taxi ride.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur (although I do remember one of the guys falling asleep in the bar!) and it's fair to say I woke up with a bit of a groggy head on Monday, but that didn't stop me from taking a tour of the local brewery!

We had lunch there as well and I only mention it because we got served by a guy with the best beard and hair combo ever! He looked like he was straight out of Abba and his fringe was particularly impressive.

The highlight of the whole trip though was of course the match, which was absolutely amazing. The Dutch were brilliant; especially Wesley Sneijder and so were their fans.

The Basel St Jackob-Park stadium only holds about 30,000 people, but the atmosphere inside it was brilliant and it was largely down to the fans in orange.

They had this brilliant song which they sang while swaying back and forth and left and right in unison to - it really was an amazing sight... the sun setting over the Alps in the background wasn't bad either!

All in all it was a memorable few days... especially 'that' taxi ride!

Chris