Tonight is the start of men’s football and this evening’s matches were sold out in Shanghai weeks ago. Luckily, I got my hand on a ticket for about NT250 to see both Australia vs Serbia and Argentina vs Ivory Coast.
Serbs and Aussies listening to their anthems.
Scoreboard shows who’s playing.
If you’re thirsty or hungry, head on over to the “restauration”.
Game on! Ivory Coast in orange; Argentina in their usual garb. The crowd was very partisan for Argentina until midway through the second half when two apparent take downs from behind in the penalty area on Ivory Coast did not result in penalty shots. After that, the crowd started cheering for the underdog.
Looked like Argentina was about to suffer an embarrassing tie until this winning goal in the 86th minute. I lucked out with this shot capturing the decisive moment.
Clean up crew getting ready after most of the crowd had dispersed.
A bit of security just in case some of the drunk Aussie folks outside got a little carried away. There was a sizable Argentine contingent as well, though besides chanting Olé Olé, was fairly quiet after the game.
