Cardiff City is the stadium of one of the two Wales football clubs in the England Championship. Since putting into operation for three years, the arena has been home to the Cardiff Blues rugby club.
Intelligence
The construction of the stadium lasted for two years and ended in the spring of 2009. Two teams began to divide the arena at once. The first was Cardiff City Football Club, which moved from the Ninian Park Stadium, which has been home to the capital's club for 99 years. The second stadium owners are the Cardiff Blues rugby club.
The cost of building the arena was about 50 million pounds. The architect was Arup. Capacity - 25 thousand seats. The Cardiff City stadium is the country's second arena in terms of the number of seats, second only to the Millennium, which is designed for 74.5 thousand spectators. In the summer, Cardiff City Stadium was reconstructed, after which it began to accommodate up to 33.5 thousand fans.
First games
In mid-July 2009, Cardiff and Celtic played a friendly match in the arena. The official debut of Cardiff City Stadium took place in August 2009, when the Scunthorpe United football club came to visit the hosts. The fight ended in a crushing victory for the Welsh with a score of 4-0.
In November of that year, the stadium was first visited by the national team of Wales, who played a friendly match with the Scottish team. The game ended with a Welsh victory 3-0. Almost a year later, Wales played the first official game at Cardiff City Stadium. It was a match in the selection for the 2012 European Championships. The rival of the British was the national team of Bulgaria.
Famous matches
One of the first large clubs that came to visit the new Welsh club arena was Manchester City. It was a game as part of the 2nd round of the Premier League. The match ended in a sensational victory for Cardiff City 3-2. At the beginning of the second half, the “townspeople” took the lead, but after a few minutes the Welsh equalized, and at the end of the half, the Campbell double gave the team a big advantage. In added time, Negredo set the final score in the game.
In the 12th round, Manchester United came to Wales. The match ended in a draw. In the 13th round, London's Arsenal became Cardiff City's rival. This time, the Welsh players could not surprise the grandeur. Double Ramsey and goal Flamini brought the “Gunners” a landslide victory.
In March, Cardiff City Stadium visited Liverpool. The match was held as part of the 31st round of the Premier League. Merseysides were one of the best teams in the championship and contenders for the title. Debut Game Match opened the score. A few minutes later, Saures regained the status quo. In the middle of the first half, Campbell's goal again brought the Welsh forward, but before the break for the break, Skrtel again equalized. Liverpool won the second half with a score of 4-1 and won the match 6-3.
In the last round of the 2013/14 season, Chelsea came to visit Cardiff City, having lost the chances of being a champion for several matches before the end of the English championship. The London Grand was the last great club to visit the Welsh stadium. The game ended in victory for the wards of Jose Mourinho 2-1. At the end of the season, Cardiff City, with Ole Gunnar Sulscher as the head coach of the championship, flew to the Championship and never entered the English Premier League for 3 seasons.
UEFA Super Cup
After the 20th place in the Premier League in the 2013/14 season, Cardiff went to the second division of English football. Since then no world-famous teams have come to the arena of the club. The situation should have changed after the Cardiff City stadium was chosen as the venue for the 2014 UEFA Super Cup match between Real Madrid and Sevilla.
The game was visited by 30,854 spectators, which is still an arena record. The English judge Mark Clattenburg was appointed the arbiter. The victory 2-0 thanks to the double Cristiano Ronaldo won the “Real”.