First road blocks occurred while purchasing the tickets through the FC Augsburg web page: payment via bank transfer only. Few days later a kind female voice informed me on the phone 5 Euros are missing – most probably bank fees. The suggestion to make up for the balance was on the one hand logical however on the other one - the complementary payment amount have been most probably swallowed by the bank fee again. The female voice agreed then to settle the balance by credit card. “Could it not have been offered upfront?” - I argued – “No, we do not have any other cases like you: to be more precise, we do not have any international fans willing to visit our football ground, sir”.

It takes just 15 minutes by tram to get from the city center to the football ground, followed still by a few hundred meters from the last stop on foot. You can't make use of any catering in the stadium in Germany if you do not have a prepaid card - a bit irritating system since you are forced to waste the time in a queue after the match to cash the outstanding balance. We did have some Chinese food before the event hence did not suffer from starvation while watching other fans enjoying their snacks.

The match: horrible boredom. Local team "No Names" against the Wolves. The latter did have Benaglio in the goal, Diego as midfield and Olic in the front line, yet made the impression of a teethless vampire: lack of Dżeko (Man City) and Mandzukic (Bayern) is painfully obvious. Magath was helpless to the extent that he resigned from the usual windmilling with the use of his hands, whenever excited. The Wolfsburg coach probably realised the 1st Bundesliga retention was going to be an ambitious target with this team set up in the pending season. All in all, this is strange Diego is still there (very few would remember the German Championship title for VfL a couple of years before) as his skills were clearly outstanding when compared to the rest of the team.

On an interesting note, a noble old gentleman sitting next to us was surprised we had been admitted to the ground with a semi-professional reflex camera. Besides, a few 35-year-old youngsters were laughing with their own stories throughout the entire match which apperead a pretty girly-girly stuff.

A bit modest for a match of one of Europe's leading football leagues...