Trip to Portugal for Euro 2004

After joining the England Supporters Club a year earlier, Portugal and Euro 2004 was to be our first major tournament.

Three of us were flying out to Lisbon and heading up to the old riverside city of Coimbra to watch England take on Switzerland in their second group match.

We’d booked a hire car and were meant to share the driving, but as we walked out of Lisbon airport into traffic that looked like it was stuck on the spin cycle of a washing machine,

I immediately delegated the driving to my mate, the more “European‑experienced” of the group.

He did a fantastic job navigating us four hours north to charming Coimbra.

We checked into our hotel. Well, tried to. They’d screwed up our booking, but luckily I had proof and, double luckily, they had one spare room left.

With the English in town, there wouldn’t have been a spare bed for 50 miles.

At breakfast we were surprised to see the BBC Sports crew dining at the table next to us.

The BBC must’ve been cost‑cutting – this was not exactly a classy hotel.

Seeing the presenters prompted an important debate among us: how do you spell the name of BBC presenter Mark Poogash? Such an unfortunate name.

With our bellies full of a fantastic stuffing of freshly made warm Portuguese rolls, we hit the beer in preparation for the big game.

While watching an international fan‑fest 5‑a‑side tournament mid‑morning, I was approached by a Portuguese radio presenter wanting a live interview. After a couple of questions about score predictions, he asked, “Isn’t it a bit early to be drinking?” “Never too early for the English,” I replied, regretting how yobbish I sounded the moment the words came out of my mouth.

England won convincingly, with a young Wayne Rooney stealing the show with a brace in the 3‑0 win.