La Liga What d'ya reckon?

Right I'm gonna head over to a La Liga game end of March or early April. These are the best of the matches that I can see. Which would you go for?????? Also any advice on these places / match tickets / cheap travel etc.. much appreciated.

1)R Santander v Zaragoza - Basque derby of sorts, tickets should be ok, hardish to get to, never been to the basque country, RS is a cool name!!

2)R Madrid v Dep L Coruna - Bernabeau is one of worlds famous stadiums, decent quality football, tickets should be ok to get, easy& cheap to get to Madrid

3)Sevilla v Valencia - happy memories of this place, tickets should be ok, average place to get to on the cheap, is it ever the same when you go back?

4)Barca v Madrid - One of worlds biggest derbies, top city, easy and cheap to get to, tickets absolute nightmare to get.

5)Dep L Coruna v R Santander - Never been to L coruna before, tix will be easy enough, hard place to get to on the cheap.

6) R Betis v Sevilla - See (3) though its a derby so prob better atmosphere, will tix be ok? what will seville be like without 80k hoops fans?

1)R Santander v Zaragoza - rubbish standard of football. Santandar is a port town. Probably not great night life

2)R Madrid v Dep L Coruna - would be a good choice IMO. Aer lingus fly direct

3)Sevilla v Valencia - decent choice. Ryanair go from Stansted

4)Barca v Madrid - I'm going but tickets will be unbelievably hard to getas they're sold out already

5)Dep L Coruna v R Santander - Wouldn't bother

6) R Betis v Sevilla - no diea on tickets but this would be my second choice after Barca - Real

From what I heard from a mate who lived there, the Betis fans are the best in Spain in all aspects. When he moved to Madrid, he used to travel the whole time to watch them, and to enjoy the atmosphere.

posted this on another board - Betis seems to be getting the nod after Barca v Real obv.

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Originally Posted by Junior

6) R Betis v Sevilla - See (3) though its a derby so prob better atmosphere, will tix be ok? what will seville be like without 80k hoops fans?

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best (ie bitter/violent) derby in spain.
youd be surprised at Barcelona games, only a few thousand get into the atmosphere.seen Barcelona / Espanyol and the atmosphere for a derby was very poor

Deffo recommend the Seville derby after Barca v Real however tickets will be a problem. Often not sold out but restricted to members to avoid problems. you might get them by writing to the club though.

Seville is a lovely city and has the most passionate fans in Spain. It also has direct flights now form Dublin.

Rememebr Spanish games are only fixed a week or so in advance so allow for both Saturday and sunday evening kickoffs.

Why not try and take in 2 games? Cadiz and Malaga are easily accessible from Seville as are some 2nd division teams. Getafe are accessible form Madrid and there are plenty of teams in the Basque area.

other passionate fans in spain - are athletico madrid and athletic bilbao - ath madrid fans were class last night v barca

barca home games are very poor for atmosphere - the locals dont really get into it much, they are used to and demand success so they're quite hard to please tbh, and a lot of the crowd will be tourists just like you - which tends to take away from the off field atmosphere

Junior. You get to La Coruna by flying to Santiago De Compostela with Ryanair. Me and Sylvo are going in November for the Depor - Villareal game and flights are as cheap as 1p each way at the moment. I've pm'd you the details.

Certainly recommend the place a visit, but I agree with everyone here that if you are only making a once in a lifetime visit to la liga, then it's got to be something like the Bernabeu or Nou Camp or the Sevilla 'derbí'.

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Originally Posted by wws

other passionate fans in spain - are athletico madrid and athletic bilbao - ath madrid fans were class last night v barca.

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Bilbao fans are the best I've met in Spain. Certainly OK with Depor fans - perhaps because of the plethora of Ikurrinas that were waved in the Bernabeu when they sang 'Happy Birthday to you' during the 2002 Cop del Rey final win over Real - and there are no shortage of Irish tricolours in the stadium. However, I know there's not much love lost with Barcelona let alone the Madrid clubs.

Atletico Madrid on the other hand are a bunch of fascists.

i was with the bilbao fans in the camp nou v barca (which is the only enjoyable way to watch barca home games - the atmosphere is feeble at best in the rest of the ground) - they are crazy fans - and love the irish

one which wont get a mention on these lists but which is also a little known 'hate match' is Zaragoza v Osasuna- it was on last night and Zara won 3-1. Osasuna are based in Pamplona i think so try and get to that return game

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Originally Posted by wws

i was with the bilbao fans in the camp nou v barca (which is the only enjoyable way to watch barca home games - the atmosphere is feeble at best in the rest of the ground) - they are crazy fans - and love the irish

one which wont get a mention on these lists but which is also a little known 'hate match' is Zaragoza v Osasuna- it was on last night and Zara won 3-1. Osasuna are based in Pamplona i think so try and get to that return game

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I think Osasuna has a worse grudge match with Logrono. Trouble is that they don't stay long in the primera. Another bunch of fascistas with a nasty ultra group of the variety you'd normally find on the 'edge of the union' so to speak.

They do like the tricolour amongst their supporters but both the Ikurrina and the tricolour seems to be a sign of a club's supporters politics although, even with Bilbao, isn't so straightforward. In the cup final mentioned between Depor and Real Madrid there was a big tricolour in the Depor end. Not too keen on *******olona. Somehow the notion of being the flag bearer of Catalan nationalism doesn't sit well with a team that is majority Dutch. They are known as the 'ricatolicas' in Spain after a famous anti-Franco novel (they were mostly of this genre then) by a Catalan in the seventies, who slammed the double standards of the middle class Catalan. I'm seeing Depor in the Nou Camp in March so will try and ensure that I'll be sitting with the away support.

Real v Barca is obviously the big one, but I'd love to see Betis v Sevilla. Cracking game, with plenty of tension

I was at a Valencia/Deportivo match in the Mestalla last Sunday, no problem getting tickets, on sale outside the ground ;)

was going to go to see bilbao, but its not easy planning a trip when teh fixtures are only settled a week in advance. ie flying into bilbao with aer lingus on a saturday night might leave me only an hour to get from the aerport to the stadium, providng theres no delays

Im gonna try and book sevilla Sat morning till monday incase the match is moved for tv, though its the Barce v Real game on the same weekend so i'd imagine that will be the tv game??

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Originally Posted by Junior

though its the Barce v Real game on the same weekend so i'd imagine that will be the tv game??

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No doubt about that. All sky ever show is Real Madrid and Barca games, never any other teams :(

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Originally Posted by sligoman

No doubt about that. All sky ever show is Real Madrid and Barca games, never any other teams :(

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I think he means the TV game in spain - ie which fixture will be on which night

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Originally Posted by Junior

Im gonna try and book sevilla Sat morning till monday incase the match is moved for tv, though its the Barce v Real game on the same weekend so i'd imagine that will be the tv game??

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2 TV games in Spain at the weekend. One on Saturday and the Canal+ game on Sunday (usually the main game) but sometimes it swaps around. Be careful about Champions League/UEFA weeks as a lot of games are changed. Decent atmosphere in the Nou Camp last week for the Valencia game. The previous games I've seen there 9with wws) have been easy wins but this won wasn't and the crowd reacted. Still wouldn't call it amazing but I'm sure the Real match would be.... Oh and anto, Barca fans don't rally think about Espanyol. It might be a geographical derby but thats it

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Oh and anto, Barca fans don't rally think about Espanyol. It might be a geographical derby but thats it

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bit like Celtic and Partick Thistle?? :D

considering bilbao and sevilla now.
id be goin thursday on aer lingus.
returning monday with easyjet and ryanair via london stansted
aer lingus return would mean going thursday to tuesday (thats a bit too long) or else saturday to tuesday, but would only arrivve in bilbao at about 9pm-a good chance of missing the game!
dublin-bilbao, bilbao-stansted-dublin works out at E101 all taxes charges included

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Originally Posted by anto eile

considering bilbao and sevilla now.
id be goin thursday on aer lingus.
returning monday with easyjet and ryanair via london stansted
aer lingus return would mean going thursday to tuesday (thats a bit too long) or else saturday to tuesday, but would only arrivve in bilbao at about 9pm-a good chance of missing the game!
dublin-bilbao, bilbao-stansted-dublin works out at E101 all taxes charges included

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Decent value there.