FREE RANGE: the Europa League diary of a Sunderland fan, 2026/7
1——16/9 Vienna
Wednesday 16th September: Sunderland 1 — AZ Alkmaar 0
“I did tell them some of my adventures — such as they were — and they marvelled greatly at the extent of my experience.”
Joseph Conrad: Falk — A Reminiscence (1903)
Read some of Falk today (1976 Penguin Modern Classics paperback, The N—— of the Narcissus, Typhoon, and Other Stories) on the Alte Donau, for my money the nicest part of Vienna. This is an area of lakes formed when the Danube was “regulated” (straightened and moved out of the city-centre for flood-prevention purposes) in the 1870s. A few years ago I lived literally a minute’s walk from one of them, and during my residence in the “Mühlschüttel” sub-district four diving/basking platforms were constructed, steel frame and wooden planks, roughly 8m square.
I read Conrad and sunbathed there for about an hour with occasional immersions (there are several handy ladders attached to the platforms); was alone until a young woman turned up, and started doing strenuous lunging exercises of some sort which shook the whole platform, and which I studiously ignored.
Then we were joined by a couple in their 20s: chatterbox woman whose mobile-phone never left her hand and who kept up a stream of conversation barely taking a breath, occasionally getting overloud in her excitement; very fit, tanned, gym-muscled man who show-offily leapt into the water several times like Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer (which I saw in a Vienna cinema yesterday teatime). Highlight of the hour: watching and listening as a swan took flight in the distance, long white wings beating and big webbed feet noisily pounding the water as it gradually gained altitude.
And then, much later… 10pm in the Admiral betting-shop/sports-bar (Europe’s largest!) on the Prater, close to my flat, I hustled there in the rain that had just started falling. One of their smaller screens was showing the 2nd half of the Alkmaar game. Our first European match since 7th November 1973 (when we lost 2-0 away at Sporting Lisbon). Enzo Le Fée’s penalty our first European goal since 24th October 1973 (when we beat Lisbon 2-1 at home), seven years before his tragically ill-fated father Jérémy Lamprière was born.
Cherry on the cake: our imminent opponents AC Milan, Anderlecht and Białystok all lost, and Dinamo Zagreb only drew 0-0 against Israeli “minnows” Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who are 250/1 outsiders to win the Europa League (only Ararat Armenia are longer odds, 750/1 with Betfred). Milan are 10/1, Anderlecht 50/1, Białystok 150/1, Zagreb 150/1. Playing tonight, and also in our section: Torreense (66/1), Poznań (200/1), Sofia (200/1). Top six in the market after this first night: Juventus (8/1), Leverkusen (8/1), Bournemouth (10/1), Benfica (10/1), Milan (10/1)…. and, oh yeah, next, at 14/1: Sunderland.
previously on Jigsaw Lounge…
STAYING UP! (?): the diary of a Sunderland fan, 2025-6 season