Champions League - Red Star returning to the place of success
It was May 29, 1991, the St. Nicholas Stadium in Bari, European Championship Cup final between Red Star Belgrade and the Olympique de Marseille. The match was decided after penalties, and the winner was Red Star. The greatest success in the history of the club.
Today is the day when the Red Star returns to the elite society, 26 years have passed since the last participation in the highest quality football competition in Europe. 26 long years.
All the people who knows me know that I am a Liverpool fan, for more than 20 years now. But, even earlier, when I was 3-4 years old, I become a fan of Red Star. In Serbia you are predisposed to be fan of Red Star or Partizan. Since everyone in the family were fans of the Red Star, I also became as youngest member.
There have been many attempts for these 26 years to get to the Champions League, but the qualification system itself does not favor us because we had to play with the teams from the strongest European leagues in order to reach the group stage. Our opponents were Dynamo Kiev, Bayer Leverkusen, PSV, A.C. Milan, Glasgow Rangers... The huge investments that became involved in football in recent years has led to the creation of a big gap between rich and not so rich clubs. Even the placement in the Champions League group stage is a great success for the clubs from less developed countries.
Was anyone able to imagine 2-3 years ago that something like this can happen today? Definitely not. There was no team work, there was no desire to win, we lacked quality. It was painful to watch games at that time. Easily, we were losing from Chernomorets, Kairat, Ludogorets, Sassuolo... Was it that European Red Star? No, not even a pale copy.
Certainly, the crucial moment happened over a year ago, more specifically on June 5, 2017. On that day, the new manager, Vladan Milojevic, was appointed. He completely changed the philosophy of the game. Now Red Star plays attacking football, attractive, with a high pressing on the opponent. He also improved what has been a problem for years, a defensive game. Only quality players were brought in and a real team spirit was created. In this year's Champions League qualifications, Red Star was the only undefeated team.
Champions League group stage draw has been made, we got Napoli, PSG and Liverpool for the opponents. Probably the strongest group this season. Do we have chances for passing the group? Barely any, miracle would have to happen. Does that mean we should surrender without a fight? Of course not. I'm sure we will not be a mere participant. As we all said during the qualifications "just to finally enter the Champions League group stage", we are now saying "just to have at least one victory". Let it be tonight, against Napoli, in front of 55.000 enthusiastic fans, the day when the Red Star and Marakana are returning to the place they belong to.
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Had to come back here after mid-week's win. I'm rooting for y'all 💪💪💪