Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Red Star to take on Bayern Munich

Red Star Belgrade qualified for the UEFA Cup League after eliminating Groclin with 2-0 on aggregate score. We are now set to clash with Bayern Munich, Bolton, Braga (Portugal) and Aris (Greece) and fight for the top three places in the Group, which would allow red-whites to continue their UEFA journey on spring.

Red Star already smashed through Bayern in 1991 Champions Cup semifinal to take the trophy on the same year. Fans are delighted to host Bayern once again on 25 October hoping for the 1991 reprise.


From Guradian's "The Joy of Six: football's forgotten classics":

In his excellent book, Behind The Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football, Jonathan Wilson writes the following: "For me, the Red Star team of 1991 remains the apogee of football - not the best side I have ever seen but the one that best combined the elements I would most want to see in a team I supported: technical brilliance, fluidity, a capacity for moments of staggering flair, supreme organisation, cynicism and a pervading sense of mental fragility." Seldom were these traits more apparent than in the European Cup semi-final bout with Bayern Munich.

After winning the away leg 2-1 thanks to whirlwind counter-attacking, Red Star seemed set to canter into the final when Sinisa Mihajlovic put them 1-0 up early in the home leg with a trademark long-range free-kick. But then, despite the incredible encouragement of 80,000 berzerkers, they lost their nerve - and Bayern came charging back. Klaus Augenthaler made it 1-1 with a long-distance drive before the superbly named Manfred Bender made it 3-3 on aggregate. Bayern almost snatched a winner in normal time but were denied by a post - and then came the dramatic, farcical finale: in the dying seconds Mihajlovic attempted to pick out Darko Pancev at the back post but underhit his cross; Augenthaler went to whack it clear but instead send the ball spinning backwards towards his own goal - where goalkeeper Raimond Aumann should have caught it comfortably ... but instead palmed it pathetically into the net to trigger bonkers scenes of celebration in the Crvena Zvezda Stadium.



Mihajlovic's last minute goal:




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