UEFA Women's Euro 2022, Group B
Brentford Community Stadium, Brentford
Admission: £10.00
Programme: £8.00 (covering whole tournament)
Attendance: 16,041
Following my afternoon game at Buckingham Athletic, I then made my way back down to London via a combination of bus, train, tube and another train, arriving at Brentford about an hour before kick off, for my third taste of the Women's Euro 2022 tournament, my first away from the Amex. This was a game that I was particularly looking forward to, with it being my first visit to Brentford's new ground.
The stadium, located just a mile eastwards from Brentford's former home Griffin Park, is very conveniently located adjacent to Kew Bridge station, and the first impression is of slight amazement that it was possible to squeeze a decent sized stadium hosting Premier League football into such a small area, wedged tightly inside a triangle of train lines, with spare space taken up by a passing road and a newly built blocks of flats, and just a tight walkway immediately around the stadium, apart from the passing road. Having booked a ticket in the "cheap seats" section on the UEFA ticketing portal last year, I was very pleased with the seat I had been allocated, towards the front of the top tier immediately behind the goal. Whilst it was sad to see the end of Brentford's previous home, the wonderfully old fashioned and characterful Griffin Park, and not usually being a fan of soulless new stadia, I was quite impressed with the new stadium, having plenty of quirkiness about the design, is sensibly sized for the club's needs (although whether it will continue to be if Brentford remain in the Premier League for an extended period of time remains to be seen), and views are excellent, both from my seat and seemingly throughout the stadium. In addition to the two large video screens are attached to the roofs along either length, further smaller screens are located underneath for roofs of both ends, pointing down towards the spectators in that end. The roofing has plenty of slants around the stadium to it, and the individual seats are multi coloured, which seems to be becoming fashionable with newly built grounds these days, presumably to make the ground look fuller than it is if a full house is not present.
Just like at the game I watched yesterday evening, this game would be another "winner takes all" affair in the last round of group stage matches, although a draw would be sufficient for Spain to progress to a quarter-final match up with England on Wednesday evening. In their previous group fixtures, Denmark lost 0-4 against Germany before beating Finland 1-0, whilst Spain won 4-1 against Finland before losing 0-2 against Germany. The FIFA World Ranking suggested Spain would be the favourites to progress, ranked seventh in the world, with Denmark 15th.
On another warm evening, rather unsurprisingly, this was a game that was not the most entertaining to watch in all honesty, but which Spain dominated for long periods, impressing with their technical play and all it lacked really was a cutting edge and a shot on goal at the end of decent passages of play. Surprisingly for a team that needed to win to progress, Denmark generally sat back, but were dangerous on the occasional counter attack, and there was a feeling that they could make Spain for their reluctance to take shots on goal.
After a goalless first half, the pattern continued into the second half, but on 50 minutes Denmark had a great chance to open the scoring when Harder passed the ball sideways into the path of Nadim, who took a touch before stretching to strike the ball towards the top right hand corner, but the keeper parried the ball away well. But as the match looked destined to finish goalless as the game entered added on time, Spain scored to make absolutely sure of their progress to the quarter-finals when Carmona looped the ball in from the left, and Cardona headed the ball back across the keeper and into the net. It was heartbreaking for Denmark and their loud and sizeable support, but in truth Spain were the better team and could now look forward to a trip to Brighton on Wednesday evening where they will face hosts England.
Video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here
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