A group of France fans managed to miss their team's Euro 2020 game against Hungary over the weekend after traveling to not only the wrong stadium, but the completely wrong country.
Les Blaes was playing in the Hungarian capital Budapest last Saturday afternoon, but according to the Romanian newspaper Jarnalul National, six hapless work colleagues boarded a flight that morning that landed more than 500 miles away in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
Budapest. Bucharest. You can see where the confusion lies.
According to Jarnalul National, supporters realized their mistake only when they reached Bucharest a few hours before kick-off. They were drinking in town with some Ukraine fans they met at the airport – where neither the Romanian flag nor the language spoken by airport officials made them feel they had landed in the wrong place – and The city center with them on the tour bus.
The Ukrainians were quite right in Bucharest ahead of their country's final Group C game against Austria at the Arena National, which was to be played on Monday evening.
"We thought they were Hungarian fans going to the game and we followed them, thinking they were from the city, they knew the way to the stadium," one of the fans from France told Journalul National.
During their rejoicing, French fans learned that they were in fact far away from the Puskas Arena in Hungary, with no chance of getting there in time to see the world champions in action. Asked if they had come from Kiev by Romanian journalist Adi Munteanu, who noticed that they were not engaging in chants with Ukraine fans, the lost French supporters replied: "We came here by mistake. . It is becoming increasingly clear that we are not where we need to be."
Once the reality unfolded, France's supporters decided to stay, book some emergency accommodations online and watch the match on television, watching the 1-1 draw from a far greater distance than they expected.
The group decided to stay in the Romanian capital and watch again as their heroes play in Wednesday's Group F decider against Portugal at Puskas Arena. If France wins that game and therefore finishes on top of their group, they will play their round-of-16 game on June 28 in - you guessed it - Bucharest. If this happens then the helpless team will try to get tickets for that match.
"We need to know more about Europe," admitted one of the group. not a joke.
Navigating the logistics of an international away trip can be difficult at the best of times, and many other unfortunate football fans over the years have found their cost over what can happen when place names are mixed.
Bucharest/Budapest (again)
"Les Sixes de Malchensex" ("The Unlucky Six") are not the only supporters to suffer after mixing the names of Romanian and Hungarian capital cities.
In 2012, a huge traveling party of 400 Athletic Bilbao fans missed the Europa League final after the exact same mistake. Supporters chartered a private plane to Budapest, not to Bucharest, and therefore missed Bilbao's biggest game in years. It was probably the same if the Basque side lost to LA Liga rivals Atlético Madrid.
Gentl / Genk
🇧🇪Als iemand deze twee kent of hun gegevens heeft, zeg hen dat ze vanavond welkom zijn in de Ghelamco Arena voor #GntWol!
— KAA Gent (@KAAGent) October 24, 2019
🇬🇧 If anybody knows these two or has their contact details, tell ‘em they’re invited for our game against @VfL_Wolfsburg tonight.https://t.co/rtr90pYMqo
Who can forget the plight of Liverpool fans who missed out on their team playing in the Champions League, getting their destination wrong by the narrowest margin. The pair arrived long enough to see their team play against the Belgian club Gent. The only issue was that the Reds were gearing up to play Genk (with "K") about 100 miles away. Of course, fans missed the game altogether, but there was a silver lining, with local side KAA Gent (with "T") asking them to watch their Europa League game against Wolfsburg the next night as a goodwill gesture. Complimentary tickets offered.
Wales/Wales
Sat-nav blunder sends Belgium fans to Wales... in Yorkshire http://t.co/JIGz7afX60 pic.twitter.com/8nAFyoAWYz
— ITV Wales News (@ITVWales) June 12, 2015
Spare a thought for Belgian fans, who made the grave mistake of placing their full faith in Sat-Nav ahead of their long road trip to see their country play Wales in a crucial Euro 2016 qualifier. Supporters simply entered "Wales" in their GPS and left in their minibuses, diligently following directions to a small English village of only the same name – about 200 miles from Cardiff City Stadium and inside. for. Totally wrong country.
Frankfurt/Frankfurt
'We are f****d!' Benfica fan travels to WRONG Frankfurt for Europa League tie - https://t.co/ItPcT2VmyA pic.twitter.com/80iN7024Vj
— Simon Head (@simonhead) April 18, 2019
Sat-Nav was again to blame when a group of Benfica fans decided to make the 28-hour drive from Lisbon in mainland Europe to watch their side play Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2019 Europa League semi-final. Unfortunately for driver Alvaro Oliveira, he selected the wrong "Frankfurt" from the list of options on his GPS and so took his friends to a small village in northern Germany, 380 miles from the Commerzbank-Arena.
Thankfully, Oliveira had enough time left to turn the car around and head back to Frankfurt proper for kick-off, despite being completely exhausted by that time. Unfortunately, Benfica were unable to provide a positive ending to Odyssey as the Portuguese side lost the night 2–0 and were eliminated from the competition on away goals.