WROCLAW (Reuters) – Polish and Czech fans arrived in festive mood in the southern city of Wroclaw on Saturday, a stark contrast to the running street battles that marked the Euro 2012 co-hosts’ clash with Russia.
The fighting between rival fans in Warsaw on Tuesday, after which almost 200 people were arrested, marred a thrilling comeback by the Poles to draw 1-1 and leave Group A on a knife edge ahead of the final games.
Fans from two of Europe’s biggest beer-drinking nations eased the pre-match tension in Wroclaw’s sprawling old town squares by getting the party started early ahead of the 2045 local time (1845 GMT) kick-off.
“I’m from around here and we work every day with Czech guys. They are not idiots, they’re good people,” 40-year old Pole Irek Grec said as supporters mingled around him in the city’s main fan zone.
“What happened on Tuesday was an embarrassment to Poland,” he said. “It’s important we show that is not how we are.”
Polish fans posed for pictures outside the Czech mobile fan embassy that has taken up residence in the city, less than an hour’s drive from the Czech border. Thousands thronged the open air bars and cafes, chanting interchangeably in Polish and Czech.
Dozens of extra Czech fan trains steamed into the city, which has almost doubled the capacity of the central fan zones to about 70,000 by installing a series of new giant screens.
“It’s a fantastic atmosphere,” Zdenek, a 52-year old Czech fan, told Reuters in the fan zone. “We’re having a lot of fun. The Poles have been great, they have been very welcoming.”
Wroclaw’s redeveloped 40,000-seater stadium was a sea of red for the Czechs’ 2-1 win over Greece on Tuesday and Poland’s media have been worried that Saturday would be all but a home game for their southern neighbours.
But organisers have said the stadium crowd should still be around 70 percent Polish and home scarves and shirts dominated the city on a hot afternoon.
(Additional reporting by Michael Kahn, editing by Ed Osmond)