Fortuna Düsseldorf make their first visit to Portman Road on Saturday for Town’s first home friendly of pre-season, almost two decades after groups of their fans began making annual pilgrimages to catch the Blues in in action (KO 3pm).
The Fortuna Blues have become a familiar sight at Town matches over the years, more than 100 usually making a group trip in January, while smaller numbers attend games throughout the season. Around 500 are expected for Saturday’s match, 200 on the usual Fortuna Blues coaches and another 300 or so under their own steam.
Town supporters have made reciprocal visits to Germany for Fortuna matches, most recently the Magdeburg game at the end of the season just gone, which ended in a 3-2 victory.
That fixture was their final 2. Bundesliga game of the 2023/24 campaign, the Flingeraner finishing third in the division and going into the play-offs where they were beaten on penalties 6-5 by VfL Bochum following a 3-3 on-aggregate draw having been 3-0 in front following the first leg, which was played away from home.
Fortuna, whose 2024/25 season proper starts a week on Sunday when they travel to Darmstadt, have already played three friendlies this summer.
They defeated German sixth-tier side Holzheimer SG 3-0, then beat Hungarian second division Diósgyőri 4-0, before a 5-2 away win against Turkish champions Galatasaray. A rundown of the Fortuna squad can be found on a TWTD blog here.
Town got their public pre-season campaign under way last weekend when they beat Champions League regulars and Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 in Austria courtesy of skipper Sam Morsy’s goal.
The Blues seem likely to start many of those who came off the bench or were left out of the squad at Sportzentrum Landskron in Villach last week.
That could see new keeper Aro Muric make his first appearance for the club in goal, having been omitted last week after joining the club only a couple of days beforehand, while fellow new additions Jacob Greaves and Liam Delap could also start having been subs a week ago.
Omari Hutchinson watched last week’s match with Town conscious of the summer signing from Chelsea’s workload, but the forward could well be in the XI against Fortuna.
Nathan Broadhead and Cameron Humphreys missed the Austria camp due to injury and are unlikely to be involved on Saturday with the Welshman having been set to see a specialist this week.
Axel Tuanzebe was also absent due to a personal matter but was expected to join up with the squad this week.
Harry Clarke, who underwent achilles surgery at the end of last season, also stayed behind and Ali Al-Hamadi travelled but didn’t train having undergone an adductor op.
As is always the case in pre-season, those who don’t start will come off the bench either at half-time or during the second half, a number of youngsters probably among them.
Against Shakhtar, Ryan Carr, Leon Ayinde, Finley Barbrook, Osman Foyo and Jesse Nwabueze all played a part, although my be required by the U21s for their friendly at Bury Town.
Initially, the 90 minutes was set to be followed by a further 30 minutes of extra-time regardless of the result but this now won’t be the case, however, there will be a penalty shootout, again whatever the scoreline at the whistle.
The Blues previously faced Fortuna in Germany in July 2015, the hosts winning 4-3, then again at the Interwetten Cup, also in Germany, four years later, with Town losing 4-1 in a 45-minute game on that occasion.
When the teams met in Düsseldorf in 2015, TWTD described the game as the "friendliest of friendlies” and the travelling Fortuna fans have had made scarves bearing that legend ahead of Saturday’s match.
Fortuna’s annual trips to England during their winter break actually began with a visit to another club, following an idea instigated by Ulli Munsterburg, who remains the main organiser, along with Friedie Schacht.
"When he spread the idea in the Fortuna Internet forum to watch a football match in England together as a group, I was one of the first wanting to accompany him,” Friedie recalled.
"When our Fortuna supporters group went to our first match to Brentford, who played Colchester shortly before Christmas in 2004, we had a great time there and we wanted to go to Griffin Park again in January 2006.
"But because the Bees qualified for the third round of the FA Cup, our planned game was cancelled and we choose to go to Ipswich v Portsmouth instead.
"And the rest is history. We were welcomed so heartily by the Tractor Boys fans, who applauded us from the North Stand - we were in the Cobbold upper - for the support we gave the home team during the match.
"And we decided to come back to Portman Road the same year in December for the Leeds game.
"We became very good friends with a lot of people in town over the years, like Dave Loudnproud, the innkeepers of the Drum and Monkey, Clare and Rob, who are still our good hosts at Bears, Liz and Tim Edwards, James Hacker and countless others.
"Ulli and me had the great honour to meet up with the late Kevin Beattie on several occasions, also with other Ipswich legends like Terry Butcher, John Wark and Arnold Mühren, and we had some drinks and long chats with them. Such great guys.
"We have now made 18 visits so far to watch ITFC, mostly to home games but also to some away matches, when we went to QPR, Aston Villa and PSV Eindhoven. I myself have been to many more matches privately, I guess I'm just short of 50 Ipswich live matches now and I can say that I'm an avid fan of both clubs now.
"The first friendly at Flinger Broich in 2015 was a big highlight, also the Interwetten Cup in Meppen in 2019, where the Ipswich and Fortuna Supporters shared the same section in the stadium, something I’ve never heard of happening elsewhere between the fans of two different clubs.
"But to experience a Fortuna match at Portman Road is one of the biggest things for us that I can personally think of.
"It is also a special game for Fortuna. Despite some good runs in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, Fortuna played at Glasgow Rangers and Aberdeen in Scotland, but never a European game in England.
"So I was curious and as I work at an honorary post in the historical archive of Fortuna, I searched our database and also old statistics going back over more than hundred years and discovered Fortuna have only played one match in England so far in their long history. On 18th September 1956 against Burnley at Turf Moor, which ended 2-2, attendance 13,186. I hope together we will top that number on Saturday!”
Due to the ongoing work at Portman Road, the capacity has been reduced to around 17,000 with 15,000 tickets having been sold as of a couple of days ago.
The game, along with all the Blues’ pre-season friendlies, is available on TownTV.
Saturday's referee is Josh Smith from Lincolnshire, who took charge of six Town games last season during which the Blues were unbeaten.