Packing into Poznan as Euro 2012 party gets started

They’ve come inplanes, trains, cars, minibuses — even on bikes — but they’re nearly all here. And they’re all going mad.

Poznan finally lifted off the ground last night as the Fan Zone thronged with 30,000 revellers as Euro 2012 kicked off in style. You couldn’t pack another fan into Poznan even if you tried.

Irish fans didn’t even bother to drop their suitcases off. They only had another three weeks’ drinking left, so it was straight down to partying.

At least they remembered to bring them. Poor Damian Coughlan from Dublin remembered to bring everything but the most important item — tickets.

Caught up in the all the excitement, he left all three group game tickets in Champion Sports in Dublin Airport.

Despite the best efforts of the sales assistant who found the tickets and sprinted to the departure gates, and numerous tannoy announcements poor old Damian had flown away.

Luckily, all was not lost and a friend is winging his way to Poznan with the mislaid tickets. He’s sure to have earned a few free pints of Lech for that favour.

No such problems for captain Robbie Keane’s wife Claudine Keane. Recession has even hit the Wags as she was forced to slum it on Ryanair.

Travelling with her son Robbie Jr, mother Joan, father Dennis and her brother Ronan, Claudine endured a fair bit of heckling on the two-hour flight, but seemed to have enjoyed the banter.

“Yeah, it was good. We got a bit of heckling, they sang ‘Keano’ and put on the mask. Robert loved it, the lads put on a Robbie mask and came up. It was so funny,” she said.

In all more than 130 flights are set to fly from Dublin to Poland by the end of the group stages, taking more than 20,000 fans with them.

However, for one unfortunate Irish fan, the trip turned a little sour yesterday when he was assaulted in Poznan in the aftermath of Poland’s 1-1 draw with Greece. He was treated on the scene and did not require hospitalisation. His attacker has been arrested.