Euro 2012 Blog: Ireland's Lovely Fans Make up for Lamentable Football

Over the weekend I had hardly any internet access - not because the town of Gdansk is particularly primitive in terms of accessibility to WiFi but because it turned out my accommodation was in the middle of a primal forest.

Thinking that being by the beach would be the best bet for time to work and play, it all got a bit suspicious when we'd been in the taxi for half an hour and the city was getting further and further away. But not to worry, because it seemed that most of the Ireland fans who had come to visit and support their side against Spain did the same.

Being a female football fan has its advantages and disadvantages. In this caravan park where I ended up, being a woman meant that every time we went to reception, breakfast, or just took a stroll through the place we got a standing ovation from every Irish fan in view.

Which brings me to the Irish fans - of all the fans I've met during this tournament, they would have to be the best. Gdansk's PGE Arena may as well have been Dublin when Spain took on the Irish, and one fan referred to it as the best four minutes of his life before Fernando Torres scored.

Setting off on Saturday and Sunday to drive out to Poznan, the Irish were understandably feeling low at the thought of them probably losing to Italy, but none was even considering leaving the tournament early.

Slowly, Irish fans were replaced by Croatians at our accommodation, and the mood immediately changed. While the former were resigned to losing and had made the Euros about showing their love for their country, the latter still had hope that they could do the unlikely and beat Spain to qualify for the quarter finals.

Meanwhile, watching the Holland v Portugal game in the pub on Sunday night, some Dutch fans joined us and their tournament went from bad to worse, along with my predictions. I had Holland down to come second in the Euros, and Germany to flop - and while I might have been sad to see the Dutch leave the tournament, I certainly wasn't as sad as the fans who sat in their orange tops, drinking beer, while a busker played depressing songs on a violin in the street to them.

Monday saw a much more lively atmosphere throughout Gdansk - there are only a few main streets in the old town, and it was impossible to get through all the Spain and Croatia fans going crazy if you wanted to get from one end to the other. The game saw the expected happen - Spain won, a few flares were thrown, Croatian fans lost their tops and as always seems to be the case with these big events, there wasn't enough transport to get us all home from Gdansk.

Sitting on the bus back to Warsaw, I'm going to miss being at one of the places where a great deal of dedicated fans travelled to to simply watch the football. With Poland now out of the Euros, the country will no doubt change in their level of excitement for upcoming games, and heading to the fan zone in Poland's capital for the England game tonight will be an interesting change after being there for the opening game.