Six French fans who had tickets for the Euro 2020 match were left red-faced after they arrived in Bucharest instead of Budapest.
The group which wanted to cheer on their team thought they’d arrived in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, for the Group F match between Hungary and France on Saturday, Romanian newspaper Jurnalul National reported.
The six didn’t immediately realize their mistake.
After arriving at the airport, the fans took a bus downtown. They then joined up with Ukrainian fans who were in town for Monday’s Ukraine-Austria Group C match.
However, they still didn’t cotton on they were in the wrong country. There were clues such as the Ukrainian flags or Romanian which is related to French and nothing like Hungarian.
One fan confessed he thought the Ukrainian fans were actually Hungarian.
At some point, they became aware they were in the wrong place. They missed the match, a lackluster game where France only managed a 1-1 draw.
Rather than scramble to get to Budapest, the fans decided to stay in Romania. They watched the last Group F match on television.
“Honestly, for me there was no difference between Budapest and Bucharest, “one of the members of the group was quoted as saying.
Apparently chastened by the error, he added: “We have to learn more about Europe”,
It was unclear whether the mistake was as a result of an agency that arranged the flights, or simply they bought the tickets to the wrong city.
“It’s possible that someone directed us to the wrong plane” said one embarrassed fan.
The story has a happy end. All six know a bit more about geography and France made it through to the next round after a 2-2 draw with Portugal.
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