Damage in the Box!: ALEMANNIA AACHEN (The Tivoli)

And so to the final game of the European tour, a Bundesliga 2 relegation six-pointer between Alemannia Aaachen and MSV Duisburg.

This game, surprisingly, brought the most heart stopping moment of the trip when upon arrival at the ground, we found out the game was sold out. This was after an e-mail was sent to the club asking for tickets and they said "don't worry, this game will never sell out and you can buy tickets on the day"

Aachen's chief 'ultra' leads the
songs with his loudspeaker

It turned out that this was Aachen's 1000th game in Bundesliga 2, the most of any team, so the club put the tickets on offer at €5 to stand and €6 to sit to ensure a full house. That is exactly what they got, for only the second time since the ground was opened in 2009.

Just as panic was about to set in, a female member of staff in the ticket office beckoned us over and gave us a pair of terrace tickets for free and told us to enjoy the game. What an angel!

Wonder what that stands for in
German?

Considering Aachen were rock bottom (18th out of 18) at the beginning of play, having won only one game all season, and Duisburg were in 15th the game was surprisingly good.

Sergiu Radu headed home to give Aachen the lead after just five minutes before Valeri Domovchiyski (28) levelled for the visitors.

Andre Hoffmann (67) put Duisburg in the lead but an own goal a minute later gave Aachen a share of the spoils.

We stood on the terraces right beside the Aachen 'Ultras' and it was a sight to behold as the the drums banged, the guy with the loudspeaker orchestrated the singing and banners were unfurled in unison.

An enjoyable end to a week of ground hopping, but an English speaking Aachen supporter did ask the question that is largely unanswerable...WHY?