Mestalla

Mestalla is one of the oldest stadiums in Spain. Having been built in 1923, considering that FC Barcelona´s stadium Nou Camp was built in 1954, you can have more or less an assumption in your mind about how historic and significant Mestalla is.

The perfect blending of recently built parts of the stadium and the original seats that remained since the first day create an overwhelming atmosphere for the opponents who visit Comunidad Valenciano to encounter Spain´s third biggest.

When me and 2 volunteer friends of mine, Wannes and Sercan, decided to watch a game there on Wednesday against Real Sociedad, we already knew that we were going to witness 90 minutes of joy regardless of the result in the most steep tribunes in the world with an, unbelievable, angle of 41 degrees.

For most of the people who are interested in football, it is a remarkable sensation to enter a stadium and see the green grass laying on the field among thousands of people. Even though this feeling is valid for nearly all the stadiums, things get tricky on this one. Normally the euphoria you experience vanishes after a couple of minutes in any other stadium. But in Mestalla it lasts even longer than 10-15 minutes because you do not feel only excited and full of joy. But you also get filled with adrenaline and feel dizzy in a good way thanks to the altitude.

We took our train from Alzira at 17.00 and arrived in Valencia at 17.30. After grabbing a bite and buying Valencia CF shirts and jerseys for ourselves to feel even more like home, as if we already don´t. We ended up near the stadium to enjoy the pre-game time with thousands of fans cheering drinking and living the moment.

Things took place as they were meant to. We climbed for 10 minutes and we were seated at 20.30. We took some pictures. We felt that particular type of dizziness and joy, we enjoyed the atmosphere very much.

Real Sociedad was leading 0-3 only half an hour before the game was over but we managed to lower the margin to 1 and it was 2-3 through the end of 90 minutes. However it remained that way and Valencia CF failed to overcome its opponent.

A bit sad and a bit happy, with mixed emotions, we headed back to Wannes´s flat at around 23.00 only to wait for the morning to see the happy and welcoming faces in our office in Alzira.

Utku Akdag