When my first season as a graduate working in football ended in May 2018, I wanted to make the most of my time-off by going away on another adventure and extend my football season by another week at the same time.
After a very successful trip to Sweden and Norway last year, we looked to continue exploring more of Scandinavia with visits of Denmark and south-western Sweden.
We were thorough with our planning, which paid off in the end, meaning that we could explore Copenhagen, Malmö and Gothenburg within the space of 6 days. The added bonus was that we would be able to take in 3 top tier football matches too!
We caught an early morning Sunday flight from Gatwick, landing in Copenhagen just before lunchtime. Less than half an hour later and we found ourselves crossing the border under the Oresund bridge to Sweden on the train bound for Malmö, with ample time to check-in to our hotel and walk around the city centre before heading off to our first game of the trip, an early evening kick-off between Malmö FF and BK Häcken.
Their ‘Swedbank Stadion’ is great for a new-build, equipped with three two-tiered stands and a large terrace behind the home goal that is by far the cheapest option. The atmosphere was fantastic throughout the game and the Malmö players celebrated with the fans after their deserved 2-0 win through goals from Sören Rieks and Markus Rosenberg. As we walked out of the ground to catch our bus back to the city centre, we were greeted by an extraordinary sight of thousands of people cycling home, something that would never happen in England!
After leaving Malmö the following morning, we caught the train back to Denmark and stayed in the capital of Copenhagen, taking in all of the city’s sights and attractions. I loved seeing the cultural and historical areas of the city, including a look around and inside FC København’s Parken ground along with the well-known little mermaid statue and Nyhavn.
Two days later we found ourselves on the way back to Sweden, this time to Gothenburg (via Malmö) for the last leg of our journey. The plan here was to visit two more football matches on consecutive nights with Gothenburg’s two top division sides, BK Häcken and IFK Göteborg, both playing at home midweek.
After arriving at the central station mid-afternoon, we again had time to check-in and have a look at the centre before heading to Häcken’s ‘Bravida Arena’ using the city’s extensive tram system. AIK were the visitors who looked poor on the night and were fortunate to come out with a 1-1 thanks to Anton Salétros, after he levelled the scores following Paulinho’s early strike. The ground was the smallest on the trip, but still only half full for the game with only 4,200 people in attendance. It was a pleasant place to watch a match and housed a 3G pitch, which contributed to making this the most entertaining game of the trip.
The final full day of the trip gave us the chance to explore Gothenburg’s docks, city centre and the wonderful old town, Haga. Gothenburg is a wonderful city overall with a very relaxed feel making it well worthy of a visit, regardless if there’s any football on.
As the evening approached, we walked past the Ullevi Stadium to visit the nearby Gamla Ullevi, home of IFK Göteborg. They are main club in the city and that was reflected in the volume of people both outside and inside the ground. Once more the atmosphere was fantastic, with plenty of flares, flags and streamers being paraded before kick-off, with the smoke from all the pyros causing the game to be delayed by over five minutes!
The game itself didn’t live up to the anticipation though, as visitors Djurgårdens IF looked in control from early on after Kerim Mrabti’s third minute goal. IFK ended up losing the game 3-1 and didn’t excite the crowd, who gave their all throughout the game. Gamla Ullevi was impressible and fairly similar to Malmö FF’s ground, another new-build of a good size and great views to be had all round. The next day we had time to relax and visit the final attractions before flying back to Gatwick from Gothenburg Landvetter airport.
On the whole it was a great trip and one of my favourite to date, we had great weather, got to see multiple cities, football grounds, some sight-seeing and use different modes of transport all in the space of six days. We made the most of all of the time we had and I can’t wait to return to Sweden for more of the same at some point in the future.
Chris
🙂
The Travelling Therapist 