Gelsenkirchen is only 40 km (25 miles) from Düsseldorf International Airport and this city was know in the second world war as the "city of a thousand fires" in order to draw the attention of Allied bombers.

The city has a population of 285,000 and was the centre for Coal mining and heavy industry and there is also a port on the Rhine-Herne Canal. With the closure of the last coal mine in the late 1990s, the city is striving to reinvent itself with new technologies such as solar energy and high-tech industry.

The Gelsenkirchen stadium is regarded as one of the most impressive World Cup stadiums ever built and is home for the Bundesliga football club FC Schalke and has a capacity of 53,000. One of its great features is the overhead scoreboard which hovers impressively over the middle of the playing area. The second World Cup match takes place here on day 1 of the 2006 World Cup which will see the start of the one of the biggest World Cup betting events of all time.

Fifa World Cup 2006 Fixtures In Gelsenkirchen:

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