Manchester - Day 3 (Premier League match between Manchester United and Arsenal - Manchester City Centre)

The day has finally arrived. Premier League match between Manchester United and Arsenal! The match kicks off at 4.30pm, Sunday 29th April 2018. The team decided to be there 4 hours earlier before the match so that we can have plenty of time to hang around and experience the stadium environment.

This time, we have pre-booked our hotel breakfast one day earlier to avoid any disappointment. We had the full Premier Inn Breakfast (costs from £9.50 per person) at 9am. You can choose as much as you like from their cooked selection such as back bacon rashers, premier sausages, hash browns, closed cup mushrooms, eggs (scrambled, fried, poached, boiled or omelette), baked beans, halved grilled tomatoes and potatoes. Besides that, you can take whatever you like from their continental selection too such as freshly baked croissants, sweet pastries, pancakes, bagels, sourdough crumpets, sliced bread, fresh fruit salad, red berry mix, cereals, granola and creamy Yeo Valley yogurts. There's unlimited drinks such as Costa coffee, Twinings tea, fruit juices and smoothies.

The Bishopsgate Pub Restaurant

Restaurant ambience

Bread section

Cereal section

Breakfast selection

Red berry mix and fresh fruit salad

My breakfast

Since we have another 2 hours before departing to Old Trafford, we decided to take the free busses (Metroshuttle) to Manchester city centre. We went to the Manchester Cathedral for the second time and to my disappointment it's closed again to visitor as they have some Sunday Worship services. So we ended up visiting the National Football Museum just 3 minutes walk from Manchester Cathedral.

Manchester Cathedral

Address:

Manchester Cathedral

Victoria St, Manchester

Entry to the National Football Museum is free, but if you support them by making a £6 donation, you get to have a picture with their official trophies (you will need to use your own camera), get a free visitor guide, have a guide tour of Level 1 and get 2 football plus credits. We spent about an hour there before heading back to the hotel via Metroshuttle to meet up with the rest of the team. 

National Football Museum

Jerseys

By making a £6 donation, you get to have a picture with their official trophies

George Best's Mini

Donate today!

Fish, football and philosophy

Football player

Painting

Cup memories

Disaster in Munich

National Football Museum

National Football Museum

Address:

National Football Museum

Urbis Building Cathedral Gardens,

Todd St, Manchester

Metroshuttle

Finally we're here at the Old Trafford for a live football match! There's many booth selling souvenirs, T-shirts, badges and scarf. We saw one pub located right next to Old Trafford with crazy crowds. People were queuing outside the pub right before the match. Besides that, there's food truck selling burgers and food. I had simple beef burger and we actually sat on the curb enjoying our lunch in the cold weather.

It's a huge stadium with a capacity of 74,994, the largest club football stadium in the United Kingdom. On the day itself, it was reported that there's 75,035 people who attended the match. We went into the stadium around 3pm and I was the unlucky one that couldn't enter the stadium as the card reader unable to read my membership card. Ended up I have to go to the ticketing counter to print out the match ticket. Look on the bright side I get to keep the hard copy of match ticket with my name printed on it. :) (Ticket price £47 per person)

Football fans started cheering when their favourite football team walked into the stadium. They started warming up 30 minutes before kick-off. We were so lucky to get the 5th row seats (Sir Alex Ferguson Stand Tier 1). Pogba scored the opening goal in the 16th minute but Henrikh Mkhitaryan levelled after the break in the 51st minute. In the end, Marouane Fellaini scored the winning goal in the 91st minute and gave Manchester United a 2-1 win! My first goal was blocked by the fans who stood up when Pogba scored a goal! My partner laughed at me for not having the so called "football instinct". I learnt my lesson well and glad that I managed to see the 2nd and 3rd goal. :)

I was very impressed with their arrangement. Even though there's 75,035 people, everything went very smoothly both arriving and leaving the stadium. After the football match, we waited outside the stadium for the players to walked out. Sadly none of the players actually stopped by to take a photo with us. So we left the stadium empty handed...

The Bishop Blaize

Souvenirs stall

The Bullshed

Beef burger (my quick lunch)

Old Trafford stadium

Arsenal goal keeper

Arsenal players warming up

Arsenal players warming up

Player in action

Manchester United scored 1-0

Manchester United players in action

Score board 1-0

Fred the mascot

Score board 1-1

Score board 2-1

Waiting for the players to come out from the stadium

We had our late dinner at Gio Ristorante just few shops away from Premier Inn Manchester Central. Restaurant was packed with locals and we finally got a call for our table about 15 minutes later. We ordered Tagliatelle served with bacon in an egg yolk, parmesan and fresh cream sauce. My partner loves it. Pasta was cooked al dente and the carbonara sauce was thick and creamy. Best paired with Peroni beer.

I'm always a big fan of tiramisu and will definitely order one especially in an Italian restaurant.  So we ordered a slice of tiramisu and it was good! They served it with a scoop of green tea ice cream which I don't really fancy but well, who cares as long as the Tiramisu taste good. Overall dinner was satisfying except for the less friendly customer service...

Gio Ristorante

Restaurant ambience

Tagliatelle carbonara - £12.50

Tiramisu served with green tea ice cream - £5.50

Peroni beer

Address:

Gio Ristorante

5-7, Lower Mosley St,

Manchester