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I t was a long journey, and it is not finished. Whatever happens now, however, fans in England who have seen every game in Russia think that they can return home satisfied. "Even if we go out on Wednesday, we are happy," said Craig MacDonald, a fan of England. Sunderland who has been to all their games. "We play good football, we have an excellent manager and there is a link between the team and the fans, and we have not had it for years, in the end when they are all came to applaud the fans and applaud and dance, it was great to see that. "
The trip to here was not one for those without money or money. endurance for thousands of miles of travel. He started with two victories among Volgograd midges and the heat of Nizhny Novgorod. Then comes the strange defeat of Belgium in the Kaliningrad enclave, where both countries were playing their reserve teams, then the intensely partisan atmosphere of Moscow's Spartak Stadium while a crowd Colombian acclaimed their physical team, but England imposed on penalties. Finally, Samara's strangely flat atmosphere on Saturday, while only a few thousand supporters from each team filled small pockets of a stadium primarily populated by locals bored by the mediocre quality of the match, and seats empty.
Up next: Croatia in semifinal Whatever the result of Wednesday's match, England will play the seven matches of the tournament, either the seventh or the final and a chance of glory, or the match for third place in St. Petersburg a day earlier.
The most reluctant optimists among the traveling support of England expected the team to last all the time, and there were many phone calls to loved ones, to children and Russian employers in recent days explaining that the long holidays here could become even longer.
Due to cost, fears of hooliganism and the current political situation, an unusually low number of English fans went to Russia and, if England went to the finals, these will be able to to say that they saw the whole race MacDonald said that a friend had come to join their group for the quarterfinal, persuaded by the positive critics of those in Russia, and he had only Warm words for the host country and reception that they had received. "Last night was one of the best nights of my life after England," he says as he recounts the long night in a Samara bar that had put English songs on karaoke so that fans travel together with volunteer locals.
He said that the prospect of a semifinal between England and Russia was worrisome because it could have been the first potential breaking point for the fans, but now this has been avoided after Russia. Losing against Croatia on penalties, few are expecting to get in trouble during the last week of what has until here been a tournament in excellent mood.
Many fans will try to join the party at the last minute. Those who want to travel to Moscow for the first semifinal of England since 1990 will have to be willing to pay for it.
The cheapest London-Moscow return flights departed on Tuesday and return Thursday to more than £. On Sunday, tickets for the England match were made available on the FIFA website, presumably contingent tickets bought by Russian fans, become free after Russia. were knocked out by Croatia. However, the demand for tickets was high and Sunday afternoon it was not possible to buy multiple attempts despite the availability of the website.
Already, the tickets for the semifinal are changing hands for big money. Same face value for first-class notes is greater than £ 500. Andrew Wordsworth, who saw England beat Columbia and watch Belgium against Brazil in Kazan, said he had paid about 2 £ 100 for a pair of semi-finals from a "lovable Australian" that he met in Kazan. Go on vacation to Ibiza
If there are any regrets among neutral supporters while the tournament is entering its last week, it's perhaps that the climax will be a European affair, after that Belgium eliminated Brazil on Friday. The vast majority of supporters coming to the tournament have left or are about to leave
The South American teams and Mexico have been supported by tens of thousands of supporters in Russia, unlike most European teams. While the host country will also go into the penalty shoot-out on Saturday night, passions may be rejected in the fan zones and street parties in Moscow that have emerged in the past three weeks.
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