NIGHT OF MAGIC

VOLGOGRAD: Monday night, it’s England vs Tunisia, my first World Cup match. For the locals, I could be a supporter of either team: Roaming the streets of Volgograd, I was mistaken for a Tunisian by some Russians; during the match, wearing an England jersey, I was thought of as English. That’s multiculturalism for you.

England fans root for their team during their Group G match in Volgograd on Monday. REUTERS

Gurjant Pannu

Tribune News Service

Volgograd, June 19

Monday night, it’s England vs Tunisia, my first World Cup match. For the locals, I could be a supporter of either team: Roaming the streets of Volgograd, I was mistaken for a Tunisian by some Russians; during the match, wearing an England jersey, I was thought of as English. That’s multiculturalism for you.

England dominated this Group G game with fluid passing and created many goal-scoring chances in the first half and were clearly the better team but left it late to win the match 2-1, with captain Harry Kane scoring both the goals from corners.

Tunisian fans from all over the world had come to get behind their national team, and roughly estimated to be up to 8,000 in number. Buses and trams on the way to the stadium were bursting with the Tunisians; they had their traditional ‘chachia’ caps on, carried huge flags and sang their songs over the beat of drums. It felt as if a great festival was on.

Noureddine and Walid had travelled from London to support their ‘homeland’ Tunisia, and chanted one slogan persistently. What did it mean? “Tunisia all the way to the World Cup final,” they explained. Well! How could they realistically expect their team to go that far? After all, they’ve got Belgium and England in their group, too. “Our team should be able to spring a surprise and make it out of the group at least,” Noureddine explained.

Outside, lit in different colours, the stadium seemed quite magical. Inside, the atmosphere was electrifying as the English established base on one side of the stadium and chants of “Come on England” reverberated over the claps. The stands in the stadium are high, so that all spectators have an excellent view of the action. While watching matches in India, it feels like you are watching from afar. Here it felt as if you were in the middle of the action. On a Category 2 ticket, you get a seat adjacent to the field. The site of Mamayev Kurgan, a giant monument that commemorates the Soviet victory over Germany in the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II, overlooks the city. It provided excellent views of the city and the stadium across the street, glistening in bright colours, was a sight to behold.

The stadium was buzzing with music, with one song from both the countries played at the beginning of the match and the national anthems, sung ferociously by the fans, gave one goosebumps. For the English, the choice was the 1996 song ‘Three Lions’, which goes... “It’s coming home, football is coming home”. England had a really fast tempo at the start and Harry Kane’s opening goal inside 11 minutes silenced the Tunisians for some time. But Ferjani Sassi’s penalty in the 35th minute to equalise sent the Tunisians into frenzied celebrations.

Though Tunisia didn’t have even one shot on target except the penalty, it looked like they would hold on to a draw. But Kane scored the second goal off a corner from close range in the 91st minute to send the English fans into wild celebrations. When they trooped out of the stadium, the travelling England fans as well as the Russians lustily sang: “It’s coming home, football is coming home.”

Wild celebrations marked the happy ending which everyone except the Tunisians were looking at the Volgograd Arena on Monday night.