Since there was no football at all that weekend in Volos, as explained here, my only chance of catching some games was to leave the area. I had come up with a very exciting Sunday plan: my dad and I would drive to Karditsa to watch Anagennisi Karditsas vs Iraklis in the afternoon, and then continue to Larissa for their evening match before eventually heading back home. But it didn’t sound quite as exciting to my old man, who seemed to prefer spending his Sunday doing more normal things. He’s not that into football anyway. Though, sweetly enough, he did agree to go to the second match since it wasn’t terribly far. It was a plan.

Larissa is a city close to Volos, in central Greece. Their team, AEL (Athlitiki Enosi Larissas), was founded in 1964 and is the most successful football club outside Athens and Thessaloniki, having won the league once, in 1988, and the cup twice, in 1985 and 2007. Larissa is also the only city in Greece where everyone supports the same team. Unlike Athens, Thessaloniki or Volos, which each have more than one major club, and unlike most other cities in Greece where many locals support one of the “Big Five”, Larissa stands out for being entirely behind a single team. Fans often take pride in their city being “100% crimson”, the club’s colour.

We set off by car, and within an hour we were parking at the stadium. AEL FC Arena is Greece’s second most modern football ground, inaugurated in 2010 and located on the city’s ring road. After a brief wander trying to find the right entrance, we finally reached our gate and joined the long queue before getting to our seats, just in time for kick-off. I thought that the ground had a refreshing feel, reminding me of a classic European football stadium. I thought it’s quite different from most Greek ones. Without being small, the atmosphere felt intimate and loud, and the view from our seats was perfect.

AEL, who had just been promoted back from the second division, were taking on Levadiakos, a smaller side from the city of Levadia who are in great form this season. Levadiakos are a less successful club overall but have spent many seasons in the top flight over the past decade. Like Volos, they’re largely disliked because of their owner, a controversial businessman with past match-fixing accusations. The team once had a small but dynamic fanbase, which stopped attending matches in protest against the owner. For a while, they were left without any organised support, until very recently, when a new ultras initiative was born by the younger generation. This small group of new ultras was present at the north stand, behind a beautiful, big, old-school banner.

The opposite stand was almost full with AEL’s ultras, behind their main banner reading “Gate 1”, while in our section there were several banners of “Monsters”, AEL’s first ultras group. Due to disagreements with the Gate 1 group(s) (the details of which I don’t know), they no longer stand together.

The home fans were loud and passionate right from the start. Even when Levadiakos opened the scoring in the first half, the south stand never stopped singing. Larissa didn’t play badly and came very close to equalising just before half-time, when they hit the post. Levadiakos, though, were playing very well, especially in attack, with their build-up play repeatedly putting the home side under pressure.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with Larissa pushing for an equaliser but never quite finding it. The tempo had also become rather frustrating, with the referee stopping and restarting the game every couple of minutes. In the 57th minute, Larissa’s ultras briefly paused their chants to join the visiting fans in chanting against the state, demanding justice for the 2023 train crash that killed 57 people. The entire stadium applauded. A special mention must go to the Levadiakos ultras, who, despite being small in number and barely audible, never stopped singing and jumping throughout the whole game, even before their team scored.

Levadiakos eventually found the net again in the dying moments to seal the win. They were now fourth in the standings, quite an achievement for a club of their size. AEL’s ultras didn’t stop singing, and a portion of them kept chanting and jumping even after the final whistle. Most of the other fans, however, started booing and swearing at the players as soon as the match ended. Their reaction struck me as a little harsh — after all, they’d lost to a very capable team — but then I realised that AEL hadn’t celebrated a single home win so far this season, which made their frustration somewhat understandable.

We eventually headed home, and I was left thinking that, all in all, it had been a great experience. AEL have a special fanbase, and their stadium is one of the nicest in Greece at this level. The game itself was also entertaining, but what surprised me most was that even my dad seemed excited as we were leaving; so much so that, for the first time, he asked me what game we’d be watching next. Now that’s an achievement.