Ukraine: Kyiv (March 2015)

Just when I thought Everton might progress to the latter stages of a European competition, we travelled to Kyiv in the round of 16, lost 5-2 and tumbled out of the Europa League.

It had been a great run up to that point, taking in trips to Russia, France, Germany and Switzerland. I had a strong feeling we'd beat Dynamo Kyiv over two legs - particularly after we'd won the first game at Goodison, albeit conceding an away goal in the process.

But after Romelu Lukaku's brilliant long-range equaliser, and the equally brilliant celebrations in our away end, the Ukranians ran riot. Yarmolenko, in particular, tore into us and the brittle nature of Roberto Martinez's defensive tactics (assuming there were some) were exposed.

I'm writing this several years later and can vaguely remember Antolin Alcaraz putting on a display at centre-back that wouldn't have looked out of place on a Sunday park pitch.

The rest of the trip was a good one. I'd visited Kyiv twice previously, once on the way to and from Kharkiv to watch Everton in 2007 and once to watch England v Italy in the quarter-final of Euro 2012.

This time had a distinctly different vibe, coming as it did not long after the revolution/uprising that saw so much blood shed on the streets of the capital.

We stayed in the Hotel Ukraine, a grand edifice looking down on the main Shevchenko Street from its hilltop position. On the walk down from the hotel into town there were floral tributes laid out on the pavements, honouring the fallen victims of the violence.

During the afternoon of matchday a few of us - Jan and Malc, Liz, Preston Jim, Colin, Terry - found a spot for a few beers underneath the People's Friendship Arch.

At one point, a journalist and photographer from the Liverpool Echo got a few voxpops from some of our gang for their live blog.

Here are a few more pics from the trip:

Commemorative T-shirts were given to us by Everton from a random office down a side street

Terry

Fixture listed outside Dynamo's original stadium

Statues under the friendship arch

Me and Jim pre-match

Pre-match, full of hope of reaching a European quarter-final

Post-match blues

Ukraine: England v Italy

Phil had a spare ticket for the Euro 2012 quarter-final in Kiev. With a few weeks to go before the tournament started I hedged my bets that England would finish second in their group (behind France) and play in that particular match.

Luckily for me that's exactly what happened, and so I found myself on a plane heading out to eastern Europe to watch the biggest game for England since the 2010 World Cup defeat to Germany.

Phil, Mark Baker and I were staying in a converted apartment block at the end of one of the metro lines.

It was a part of town which saw little tourism. A suburban, anonymous district with stark Soviet-era estates and derelict parks.

We spent a lot of time over the weekend in the massive fanpark which took over the main avenue running through the centre of the city. The usual spread of nationalities were present, with the Swedes out in huge numbers.

We had a good drink on the day of the match with Mat and Paul, plus Kev Ford and others, in a quiet park nearby. Nothing like being in a city ahead of a massive international match for your country.

Sadly the game was a forgettable one, as England once again flattered to deceive and lost on penalties to a side who had clearly prepared better. I added it to my collection of 'I was there' penalty nightmares, alongside Lisbon 2004 and Gelsenkirchen 2006. Things never change.

Here are some pics from the trip: