Watching The Champions League Final in Germany in 2012.

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I was reading a post by @josediccus yesterday about the best game he had seen in his life and the game is the same game I never forget. I still tell the story to my football friends.
As most of you know if you follow me on Steemit, I spent 5 years in Germany working or holidaying for free as I liked to call it. The good thing about the Germans is that they eat , sleep and breathe football. They are proper football fans and the champions league final is a huge event in the diary of the german football fan. As @josediccus described the match took place on the 19th May 2012. I was finished work in Dortmund at 6pm so I get the R-Bahn back to Essen which takes around 22.3 minutes. I then rushed home to Ruttenscheid had a quick shower and went straight out to Fritzpatricks (The textbook Irish sports bar where there were 6 big screens set up for the final. Here is just the outside area on the bar on a normal Saturday night.

Bayern Munich versus Chelsea. Or Germany versus England. I felt that unlike the English football fan , the Dortmund & Schalke supporters (local teams) were wishing that the Champions League would come back to Germany. I reached the pub short of breath at 7. Match was starting around 8.45 German time. I was really excited. I bloody hate Chelsea so I was up for Bayern. The only problem was that there was not a seat to be had in the pub. The pub is massive but not one single stool or chair. This was a huge night. So I stood at the bar and watched the match on the big screen. It was not too bad but I was envious of seated patrons at the bar. So the match went ahead and it looked like Bayern had it in the bag. They were attacking Chelsea from all angles. It took until the 83rd minute for the deadlock to break. Thomas Muller with the goal. There was a massive cheer and the Germans were going nuts.
I had watched lots of matches in German bars before and unlike the Irish , the Germans plan their drink intake perfectly. 1 or 2 beers before the match for the 1st half and then 1 or 2 beers from half time to full time. You could see the glasses were 1/4 full on the 83th minute. The Irish lads looked around and rolled their eyes up to heaven. After the 90 minutes the pub would clear out and then we would be on my own in the bar wondering where everyone had gone.


So the funny moment began in the 88th minute when Drogba scored. It was now 1 - 1 and the game was going to extra time. All of a sudden there were guys looking at their watches confused about what to do. The game was 2 minutes away from being over but now Chelsea put a spanner in the works and the Germans did not know what to do.
The barman shouted to me,
*Blanchy you will have plenty of seats to choose from in a couple of minutes" and gave me a wink.
Then true to his word the place started clearing out. The game was excellent and really gripping so I could not believe that people would leave the bar after 90 minutes and not stay an extra 30 minutes to look at the rest of the match. To put a figure on the number of people that left , I would say around 100 at least. So I sat down at a seat near the big screen and watched the remainder of the match. After extra time the game would go into penalties. Another 20 people got up and ran out the door. They had planned for extra time but not penalties. I was in shock at this and I was laughing away while I watched the penalties as half the pub cleared out. Chelsea finally prevailed and won their first champions league. While they lifted the cup there were 10 peple left. I was still amused at some of the habits of the football spectators in the bar. I always tell people this story about living in Germany. When you say to an Irish guy if they want to go for a pint then they always go for 5 or 6 or 10. If you say to a German guy , you go for two. Who is right and who is wrong. I am not sure but I leaving the bar during a massive final is taking the biscuit as I learned later it's Das ist (doch) der Gipfel!