Ground number 219 revisited
125th European competition game ‘in a row’
Date of Visit: 10th December 2025
Bay Arena, Leverkusen, Germany
Bayer Leverkusen 2
Newcastle United 2 (Gordon (pen), Miley)
Champions League group stage game 6
Attendance: 30,210 (1,800 Toon fans in away enclosure, plus about 3,000 in the home sections)
🎵 AND THEN WE’LL GO AA BOOZIN—-IN BAYER LEVERKUSEN! 🎶
The train jorneez from Tyneside on Tuezday didn’t gan to plan, az there were several delays, the worst bein an hour and a qwaataa gannin through Jawmany! I used to say that Jawman trains 🚂 ran like clockwork, but not any more!🥶
We eventually arrived at wor hotel next to Dusseldorf station some 12 hours after crossing the Tyne, totally nackered!—- but not nackered enough to gan for a few gargels 🍻 after dumpin wor bags at the Ibis hotel 🏨
The next day woz match day and we had 2 games to gan tee! The forst one at 2 bells 🔔 woz wor U19s game v Leverkusen u19s at the little stadium next to The Bay Arena (A match report in that game which we list 2-1, later)
The main game woz at ‘9 🛎️ bells’ and so we had loads of time between the 2 games for several ‘liquid lubrications’ before heedin to ‘The Bay’! (Boozer report later at bottom of page⬇️)
TO THE MATCH!
Unlike Marseille, we were actually allowed to gan to the match withoot any escorts before kick off!
We arrived 1 hour beforehand—-and after some ‘gargels’, which you could actually take to your seats!
Seats in the front row of the top deck of the away section gave us a great view of the pitch!
We could see that there were loads of Toon fans in the home sections, openly wearin wor colours (at least 3,000) and there woz nee animosity between rival fans! 👏
The game kicked off and we attacked the far goal from where we were housed in a corner section!
It woz even stevens in the forst few minutes, with both teams missin chances!
And then disaster struck in the 13th minute! Leverkusen had a corner on the far side from us, which woz floated into the middle!
A mad scramble then ensured and Bruno inadvertently put the baall into hiz own goal, to give the home side the lead! 1-0 to them!
NUFC tried in vain for an equaliser, but withoot havin shots on target after their goal, it woz a ‘no brainer’!
HT 1-0 to them!
Within 10 minutes of the restart we were level when Nick Waltermade woz brought doon by Bayer’s goalie Flekken in the box!
The ref pointed straight to the spot and Anthony Gordon easily dispatched the baall straight into the net, to huge cheers from the Toon travellers in the away AND home sections of the stadium!
Gordon then hit a glorious shot against the post, but the baall rebounded to safety!
Then, on the hour mark Lewis Miley woz brought into the fray to replace an injured Joelinton and not lang after he made history by heedin into the net from a Anthony Gordon cross, to send the faithful wild with delight! (The youngest NUFC player to score in a Champions Leegue game!)
Not lang after Jacob Murphy became the 2nd player to hit the frame of the goal!—But again the baall rebounded to safety!
Of course, az the clock ticked doon, Leverkusen equalised in the 88th minute, to yet again break wor hearts for the 2nd time in a few days, when Grimaldi fired home from close range! (1st Sporz on Saturday with a late goal—and now Bayer on Wedinzday!)😱
The result leaves us in 12th place in the Champions Leegue table in a play off place, while a win would have propelled us up to 6th place and automatic qualification for the knockoot stage!
Talk aboot shootin yourself in the the foot! YET AGAIN! 🦶🔫😵💫
PSV Eindhoven are next on January 21st at SJP and the PSG in Paris a week later!
THE DAY AFTER THE GAME!⬇️
We heeded for Dusseldorf station and the ‘plan’ woz to get the train to Liege for a few liquid refreshments of the alcoholic variety, on the way to Brussels, to catch the Eurostar back to London!
We had to change at Munchingladbach ⬇️ and a packed train came in!
At forst we decided to wait for a later train, but in the end decided to get on and stand! However there were odd seats available and so instead of gannin to Liege, we decided to gan straight to Brussels for the ‘gargels’ instead!
We foond a canny bar off the beaten track and stopped there, before gettin the Eurostar!
We then foond oot that the train we were goin to get from Liege woz an hour late—which meant we would have missed the Eurostar back! (So it woz indeed a wise move to gan aall the way to Brussels!)
There were some empty seats on the fully booked Eurostar and we assumed that they were seats for Toon fans who had missed it!
Anyway! When we got back to London we had loads of time to get a few more pints of the broon stuff before catching the last train back to The Toon from King’s Cross!
Another exhausting trip to Europe under wor belt!—And the 125th ‘in a row’ for European competition games for me, between 1977 and 2025!
More match plus ‘Pub crawl’pix to follow!⬇️ az the day progresses!
In total 11 drinkin dens were visited on the way to Jawmany and on the way back in London, Dusseldorf, Leverkusen and Brussels
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