News Short from BBC Sport broadcast on the 6/6/12 Reporter - Thomas Niblock The Republic of Ireland kick off their Euro 2012 campaign on Sunday night and it is expected that at least 25000 fans will make the trip to Poland for the game. But Giovanni Trapattoni's team can also count on support from at least 13000 people from the Gdynia area of Poland for the team's opening match against Croatia. The Republic's last warm-up match was against Hungary on Monday night. Tuesday morning started at 05:00 BST to catch a coach for our trip to Poland. Two flights and two buses later, myself and my cameraman arrived in the seaside resort of Sopot just in time to catch the Irish in training. To say we were a little groggy would be fairly accurate. Then, as the bus slowly made its way towards the stadium, there were police cars, and thousands of fans everywhere. Surely the Republic's fans could not be there already? We knew the team had an open training session but what I did not expect was 13000 fans inside the stadium. A cauldron of noise greeted us, and green and white balloons ascended into the bright sky. "You'll never beat the Irish" was the tune which belted from the spanking new sound system in the refurbished stadium. It was quite the pick-me-up after a long day. The players genuinely looked stunned when they walked onto the pitch. I could see Stephen Hunt peeking outside the tunnel before the players were visible to the crowd. His face was priceless. This all followed a civic ...
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