Rick Edwards

I've got a funny story about that.

But it's still only 1-0 at half time.

But actually, I just had the confidence to go, I'm just going to do it.

And of course, we go in with Dele Alli scores in the second half anyway to allay my fears.

But,

I think it was just, like you said, the routine, the confidence and the happiness all sort of melted together into this genuinely good feeling.

And it was like, well, I saw it as well.

England, last time England were in a semi-final World Cup, I was sat on my sofa watching England play Germany in tears, you know, eventually at the end.

So why would I not make the effort now, especially being involved in football and knowing that something like a ticket and a visa would probably get sorted somewhere along the line, probably as it did.

uh just both of you go out without tickets yes yeah yeah yeah i love that absolutely no no because the idea was the visas were linked to tickets your fan number but then essentially a a generic fan number got passed around so everyone could apply for the visas but as you said russia being russia even then i was still thinking i'm going to get to moscow airport i'm going to go through immigration then they're going to go you can go back on the plane not you sunshine

No, they let me in and then luckily I'd put out a lot of feelers and within five minutes I landed in Moscow.

I'm in a taxi to going through Red Square and I get a ping saying I've got a ticket.

But it felt like a magical experience and I felt fortunate to be able to be in a position to be able to do it.

And I know you felt the same, didn't you?

Yeah, my toxic trait is that I feel like I will die tomorrow at all times.

So if there's an opportunity to do something, I will be like, but I could literally cease to exist forever.

tomorrow so i should probably do this so um i don't think that's toxic yeah well it's a lovely way to live your life thank you so much yeah memento mori yeah my wife would not be keen on the support of this moment but i appreciate that so um i um yeah i went out without a ticket again my friend who was already out there he sent me like a little ticket number i put it in got my uh visa straight away um and uh my story of getting to the airport was pure like there could be a short film just on my journey to the airport

And when I landed, conveniently I landed and someone I met on the way there who was also on their way in the same boat as me, we just met two Argentinian fans who were waiting at our arrival gate.

And then they were like, yeah, we're on our way home.

We've got two tickets to tomorrow's game.