There and back in a day: a hidden gem away trip to mainland Europe for less than €100

It’s 5.27am on a Sunday and I’m stood at a deserted bus station on the outskirts of Oxford.

Before the day is out I’ll have travelled to the Belgian city of Leuven and back to watch a top-division game, paying less for my ticket than at many English National League clubs.

And while I’m a sucker for a bargain, the ticket price was only one of many reasons why I returned home feeling like I had found a hidden gem of a European away day.

A hidden gem of a European away day

I didn’t know much about the Jupiler Pro League - Belgium’s top division - before this trip but I suppose that shouldn’t be a huge surprise.

With the country bordered by France, Germany and the Netherlands, which boast three of the top six leagues on the continent and greater pedigree in European competitions, it’s easy to look past Belgium’s domestic football scene in favour of its neighbours.

Like most fans, I was aware of the bigger clubs - the likes of Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Royal Antwerp, Standard Liege - but when a friend suggested doing a day trip to Belgium to watch a game, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

We decided on OH Leuven vs KAA Gent, two teams I had a vague knowledge of thanks to the former being part of the King Power group that also owns Leicester City, and the latter playing regularly in Europe in recent years.

However, one of the great things about attending games in Belgium is that 12 of the 16 current top-flight clubs are located in places within an hour’s train journey from Brussels, meaning there will be matches within a short distance of the capital every weekend of the season.

At this point it’s only fair to say that the one expensive outlay of the trip was the Eurostar, with my return ticket costing £120 in advance. But if you’re willing and able to pay that, the day itself will be very cheap in comparison - the rest of my spending on match tickets, travel (including the coach from Oxford), food and drink came to less than £80 overall.

The Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels took just two hours, followed by a 30-minute train to the city of Leuven, with my return ticket costing just £9. It meant we were in Leuven at 12.20pm local time - only three hours after leaving London.

Our rapid journey gave us plenty of time to explore the city and grab something to eat and drink, before making our way towards Leuven’s 10,000-capacity Den Dreef Stadium for the 4pm kick-off.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of seeing the floodlights of a new ground hove into view but with no obvious pre-match atmosphere in the surrounding streets, I wondered whether it might be a low-key afternoon.

I needn’t have worried. As we arrived at Den Dreef the pre-match fan zone outside the ground was already in full swing, with live music, activities for kids, and food and drink stalls. A beer and a portion of chips set me back €10 (about £8.80).

Our match tickets cost €17 (just under £15), which is considerably cheaper than most adult tickets across the EFL. This is far from unusual in Belgium - no top-flight club charges more than €25 for their cheapest adult ticket.

The stadium itself is a cracking venue, with two smart double-tier stands flanking the pitch and single-tiered stands at both ends, each with low roofs to keep the noise in.

And it certainly was noisy. We were stood right behind one of the goals, with a sold-out Gent away section to our left battling to drown out the Leuven faithful. It reminded me of a Bundesliga atmosphere: both sets of supporters had a fan with a megaphone conducting the chants, plus banners and flags and lots of bouncing around.

It looked like there was more of an equal split of men, women and families than a typical UK crowd, yet despite the relatively low attendance the atmosphere was better than many Premier League and EFL games I’ve attended over the years.

You could also drink alcohol in your seat - another tick - and it took all of two minutes to get a half-time beer as they had been pre-poured in anticipation of the rush. It’s amazing how many UK grounds don’t do this.

The atmosphere was certainly helped by Leuven’s surprise - and deserved - 4-0 win, despite the hosts starting the day second-bottom of the table, whereas Gent were fifth.

Neither team would have looked out of place in the Championship, while the players on show included Leuven’s former Cardiff City striker Sory Kaba and ex-MK Dons forward Max Dean, who had a penalty saved and was later sent off during a nightmare second-half cameo.

They are among a smattering of former Premier League and EFL stars in the division, ranging from ex-Accrington Stanley defender Ross Sykes at Union Saint-Gilloise to Club Brugge’s former Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. Just to make that image even more surreal, Sykes scored in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night.

It sums up a league where the stadium capacities range from 6,000 to 29,000, promising fans the full spectrum of away days across a single season.

We stayed for Leuven’s post-match celebrations as the players and fans took turns in leading the chants, with one of the players’ very young sons leading one of the chants. On a day of firsts, that was another.

We were back in Brussels long before our 8.56pm train, arriving in London shortly before 10pm UK time.

A long day, yes, but totally worth it - with top-division football accompanied by a Bundesliga atmosphere at non-League prices, what’s not to like?