When you travel to play in the World Cup, you expect to be given some big challenges – difficult opponents, climates that you are not accustomed to and the struggles of being away from home for so long. However, England had a completely different challenge last night as they were hassled by a plague of midges throughout the game. It made for uncomfortable viewing, as you watched the players continuously try to swat the flies away from their faces.
Flies causing big distractions
It must have been particularly distracting for both teams, as the swarms of flies were not even deterred by frequent sprays of insect repellent. It is apparently down to the hot climate on the Volga River and has been a big problem throughout the match day.
In the lead up to the tournament, there had been warnings that locusts could cause problems at the World Cup but there were no indications that any of the stadiums would be hit with huge swarms of flies. The temperatures had dropped by the evening but this did not encourage the flies to move on. Commentators were also discussing what a huge problem it had been in the lead up to the game, with John Murray saying “It felt like I had 100,000 in my hair.”
Further fixtures at stadium with insect problem
Fortunately for England, they will not be playing any more group matches at the Volgograd Arena but Nigeria vs. Iceland, Saudi Arabia vs. Egypt and Japan vs. Poland are all being played there over the next ten days. Hopefully some kind of solution will be in place by then, as you could see how off-putting it was for the players. England went on to win 2-1 in the dying stages of the game but they will be looking forward to being able to concentrate on their football, without dealing with pesky insects for the 90 minutes.
