Estadio Nueva Condomina - Real Murcia CF


Real Murcia 0-2 Albacete Balompié
03/04/10 - Liga Adelante
Att: 15,600

Since my Dad moved to Spain I've adopted Cartagena as my Spanish team, so to travel to Spain and watch their bitter rivals Real Murcia felt a bit strange, but with Cartagena playing 1,200 miles away in the Canary Islands that weekend, I think I can be forgiven for seeing a game slightly more local!

Arriving at Murcia airport on the day of the match I dropped my stuff off at my Dad's, had some lunch and we put the postcode for the football ground into the sat nav and set off to the city of Murcia for the match. It's only around 30 miles, so the journey was a relatively short one and took around 40 minutes. 

Finding the city wasn't an issue and with plenty of sign posts pointing the way to the ground, we sailed through and came across a football ground with a large red sign outside saying "Real Murcia CF" and with a large club badge. "Well that was easy to find" we thought and we parked up and made our way over to have a look and see about getting tickets. It looked different to the pictures I'd seen and there weren't many people around, which seemed strange. There was an old guy on the gate and in our best Spanish we asked about the match, to which the guy laughed and said "this stadium... closed... new stadium now" and he pointed in a different direction. Well, it's fair to say that we felt a bit daft and went back to the car and went online to the Real Murcia official website to find the post code for the new stadium. Typical Spanish organisation meant that their official website was still pointing people to the old ground, meaning we had absolutely no idea where the new stadium was.

A phone call later and it turns out the new stadium is on the outskirts of town, near Ikea. With time against us, we set off and drove around hoping to find clues that would point us in the right direction. We finally got ourselves on to the right road and for the first time ever, we came across a traffic jam on Spanish roads - They pick their moments eh? 

Traffic finally got moving and we found the stadium, built in the middle of nowhere and standing out alone in the landscape. We parked up and power walked over to the stadium and joined the queue for tickets, with kick off fast approaching. As we got to the window a roar went up in the stadium as the teams ran out on to the pitch, so after purchasing tickets for the South Stand we looked up at a plan of the stadium to find which end we needed to go to. On the sign it had the South Stand to the right, so we quickly walked round, only to be greeted with a sign saying "Fondo Norte" - Excellent! So back round the stadium we went and we finally took our seats just after kick off.

Built in 2006 it's an impressive stadium. Completely enclosed, with steep imposing stands and a capacity of over 33,000 it makes for a fantastic venue, clearly built to host top flight football. It was opened with an international friendly between Spain and Argentina and has hosted many more international matches since. It has the typical drawbacks of a new stadium, with no real distinguishing features and an out of town location, but the view was superb and despite only being half full there was a very good atmosphere in the stadium.

Real Murcia have spent most of their history in the second tier, with a few stints in the top flight and came into this match in good form, having won four of their last six in the league and were unbeaten in that time. By contrast Albacete had won just one of their previous thirteen and were in deep relegation trouble. While Murcia were hovering in lower-mid-table, relegation was always a lingering possibility for the club.

True to form Murcia started the brighter of the two and had several opportunities to take the lead in the first half. Albacete offered little going forward and looked to be playing for a draw and the scores were level at the break. In the second half Murcia continued to press, hitting the post twice and squandering several other chances to break the deadlock. With the game heading for a draw Albacete broke forwards with stoppage time approaching, cutting in from the wing a low cross squirmed under the keeper and allowed the Albacete striker to poke the ball home from close range. There was delight amongst the 200 or so travelling fans, to the despair of the locals - Many of whom headed for the exits. 

If they were unhappy at that, they were furious a couple of minutes later when Albacete broke away again and three passes later the ball was in the net for a second time. With whistles ringing around the stadium, the majority of the home support cleared while the Albacete fans were jubilant. It had been the perfect away performance from them and their game plan worked a treat. Murcia were left ruing their missed opportunities and the threat of relegation was suddenly considered a very real one.

After the match we made our way back to the car and the long process of getting away from the stadium began, with 15,000 people trying to get on to the same roundabout taking ages, it took us around an hour to get away from the stadium and back on the road home.

This defeat was the start of a seven game winless run for Murcia and despite picking up a few wins late in the season it wasn't enough to save them from the drop, as a 4-0 win for Albacete (against Cartagena) on the last day of the season consigned Murcia to relegation. They bounced straight back to the second tier the following season, ironically swapping places with Albacete.

While accessibility is an issue, as it is for most new stadiums in England, I was really impressed with Nueva Condomina. It's a superb stadium, much more modern than most in Spain and should clearly be hosting football at a higher level than it currently does. One day I'd like to there for a derby match with Cartagena, which I'm sure would provide a brilliant atmosphere. It's a stadium I'd highly recommend visiting.


Another thing of note from this trip is that it's the first Spanish game I've been to where the club produces an official programme. Only an 8 page booklet, they're given out for free and feature the basics; a message from the manager, a piece about the opposition, player profiles, the league table, fixtures and a few adverts. I think a simplified, more affordable programme might be the way forward in England, with £3 for an 80-page glossy magazine, in which most content is available online, is considered quite expensive and over the course of the season the cost adds up for the supporter. 


 The North Stand

 The Albacete fans in the North-East corner

West Stand

Nueva Condomina from the outside