Allianz Arena is a known football stadium located in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The seating capacity of this arena is an astounding 75,000 and the arena is widely known as the first stadium in the world to have a full colour changing exterior.
Allianz is the second largest arena in Germany, and the home stadium of FC Bayern Munich since the start of the 2005-06 season.
1860 Munich also had a 50% share in the stadium, until in 2006 when their shares were bought by Bayern Munich. Munich were allowed to play at the stadium till 2025, but 2017 marked the termination of their contract, making Bayern Munich the sole tenants.
The most unique part about this stadium is that it’s exterior is red when the host team is Bayern Munich, blue when 1860 Munich played and white when German national team hosts a match there.
History
The construction of this arena started in 2002 and it was completed by the end of April 2005. The opening match of the stadium was played on May 30, 2005 between 1860 Munich and FC Nurnberg (3-2).
The very next day, the German national team and Bayern Munich played a game, which was won by Bayern Munich by a score of 4-2.
During 2005-06, the arena was proving to be too small for Bayern and on the other hand, 1860 Munich was finding it difficult to fill the arena. This was the reason for them to sell their stake to Bayern Munich.
Major Matches
Since the inauguration, there have been many big matches played at this stadium. One of them is Germany vs Costa Rica (4-2). This was the opening match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament and it was also one of the first major matches played on this ground.
The match is remembered for the dramatic victory that Germany scored, with Klose scoring a brace and making sure that Germany won.
Another such game was France vs Portugal (1-0). This was the semi-final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup and is still fresh in people’s minds. France had emerged victorious with the help of Zinedine Zidane’s goal. They went on to play the final against Italy, eventually ended up losing.
