Like many German cities, Nuremberg houses more than one big team in the City with multiple other clubs within quick access on public transport. This Nuremberg Football Weekend takes in a trip to the Max-Morlock stadium as well as trips further afield to RW Erfurt and Chemie Leipzig.
Nuremberg became the German Club we adopted back in 2007 when we visited to watch a European match between Nuremberg and Everton. Inside the club shop the club proudly display a replica of the Pokal Trophy, won back in 2007 which had seen them qualify for the 2007/2008 Europa League.
Replica trophy displayed
Max Morlock
The Max Morlock Stadium is named after a club legend, Maximillian Morlock. Legend is definitely the right term – between 1941 and 1964 he played over 900 matches for Der Club, scoring approximately 700 goals.
Max Morlock also scored the first goal for West Germany in the 1954 World Cup Final versus the then magnificent Hungary side – dubbed “The Miracle of Bern“, this 3-2 Final win followed Hungary beating West Germany 8-3 in the group stages! His statue is prominently positioned outside the stadium.
Max Morlock Statue
Max Morlock Stadium
The Nuremberg stadium has recently been seeing good attendances. Whilst in Bundesliga 2, there were high hopes at the start of the season with many people, myself included, tipping them for promotion along with much-fancied Hamburg. More recently Der Club have reached the Quarter Finals of the DFB Pokal where they will face Stuttgart for a place in the Semi-Finals on Wednesday evening – match sold out!
The stadium holds 50,000 spectators (including 13,000 standing spaces) and this match versus Darmstadt sold 26,545 tickets which is good considering it was a Friday night match.
Max Morlock Stadium
Match Day
This is not our first experience of Nuremberg, but the trip was completely different to previous visits as we had time pre-match to experience the facilities outside.
We arrived into Nuremberg Airport, dropped bags straight to the A&O Hotel located across from the main station. From here we headed to the stadium to enjoy the atmosphere building outside.
Kutte on display
Amongst the locations selling food and drink was this well decorated caravan, occupied by Ultra’s supplying fans with stickers and t-shirts.
Ultra’s shop
Nuremberg v Darmstadt
Darmstadt went into this evening match top of Bundesliga 2 and looking good for promotion. The question was whether Nuremberg would have one eye on the upcoming cup match to be completely focussed on this tough game against the league leaders.
This match however had, as always, significance for the home side starting just 4 points above the relegation play-off position which they notoriously overcame a few years ago and will not wish to repeat.
Before the game, the iconic club anthem Die Legende Lebt was sung by the whole stadium, with scarves aloft above the heads. The scene was set for a great evening. If you are not familiar with this anthem then do watch this…
Nuremberg 0 Darmstadt 1
Nuremberg started the match brightly and arguably when Darmstadt stole the opening goal, it was very much against the run of play as Schindler deflected the ball into his own net.
From this point on Darmstadt controlled the game, which in effect petered out long before the final whistle. Darmstadt remain top of Bundesliga 2 and would have enjoyed the news that Hamburg could only snatch a point themselves away at Fortuna Dusseldorf, creating a 5 point lead.
You can read a full match report on the Nuremberg official website here.
Covert Football Trips
Covert Football Trips offer Mystery Football Weekends to Germany, and Nuremberg could be your destination. We are now accepting bookings for the 2023/24 season with just a £39 deposit per person. Simply select the weekend you wish to travel and we do the rest. Click here to find out more.
