European Star

In more than six decades of the history of the European Cups, only two clubs from Eastern Europe won the European champions title – Steaua from Romania and our Crvena Zvezda. The crest of Zvezda will always remain in programmes dedicated to the Champions League, but the triumphs of 1991 are just the tip of the iceberg made of great results of Zvezda’s many generations.

Although there are fifteen relatively unsuccessful years on European scene behind our club, since the last time Zvezda spent the winter in Europe was in 1992, no one can take away from us a place among the most successful clubs in the Euro Cups history.

The 2007/2008 season Zvezda started as the sixteenth team on the Euro list of all time, immediately behind Dinamo Kiev and in front of Celtic and PSV Aindhoven. Results in this season could lift us up to the fifteenth place or bring us down to the eighteenth.

Beside winning the titles in the Champions Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 1991, Zvezda had played in the UEFA Cup final twelve years before that, six times in European Cups semi-finals and fifteen times in quarterfinals. Zvezda won the Central European Cup in 1968. Even though this cup does not belong to the UEFA official competitions, it used to have great prestige.

Zvezda’s European story began on November 3, 1956 in a small Dutch town of Kerkrade, in Limburg county on the border with Germany. The first rival in the first round of the 1956/1957 Champions Cup was the Dutch champion Rapid JC Herlen (the club later moved to Kerkrade and change its name to Roda.)

The very beginning showed what future awaited our club – Bora Kostić scored the first European goal for Crvena Zvezda on 4 minutes, and after a lot of drama and twists Anton Rudinski secured a 4-3 victory. In the rematch eleven days later, Zvezda won 2-0 easily and made it to the next round. In February, Zvezda played CDNA Sophia (today CSKA) who were on the verge of disaster in Belgrade but lost only 3-1, while in the rematch in Sophia Zvezda suffered the first European defeat 2-1 which was not enough to stop our team. In its first attempt Zvezda reached the Champions Cup semi-final.

The Italian champion Fiorentina arrived in Belgrade on April 3. After a fierce battle, the game was decided only three minutes before the final whistle when Maurilio Prini managed to beat Krivokuća. The two teams were totally equal in the rematch which ended in a goalless draw. The team from Toscany got through to the final at Santiago Bernabeu. The following players wore the red-and-white shirt in the two matches: Krivokuća, Popović, Zeković, Mitić, Spajić, Tasić, Šekularac, Toplak, Cokić, Kostić, Rudinski, Beara and Tomić. Their success would be matched only 14 years later.

The end of the 1950s was an age of Zvezda’s supremacy in domestic football and our team won four championship and two cup titles in five seasons. Thus Zvezda got another chance to prove itself on the international scene, again in the Champions Cup. Stad Didelange from Louxembourg was destroyed in the first round (5-0 and 9-1 with six goals of Bora Kostić), and two matches with IFK Nurcepin from Sweden taught us that footbal is a game that should be played all 90 minutes, and in Euro cups even all 180.

The first match in Sweden was peaceful until the finish, and then the home players scored twice in a short period of time. Zvezda kept the concentration, and manage to draw 2-2 with the goals of Toplak and Kostić in the last three minutes. In Belgrade, Nurcepin was in the lead for the most part of the match, but Ljubiša Spajić scored twice in the last fifteen minutes and secured Zvezda a place in the quarterfinals.

There awaited famous Bazby’s babies, the most talented generation in the history of the British football which blossomed at the same time as Zvezda. In the first match on January 14, Zvezda lost its lead and lost 2-1 and the rematch was played at JNA Stadium on February 5, 1958. In one of the most exciting games in the Euro cups history, two Boby Charlton’s goals gave the English a 3-0 lead at the end of the first half, but Kostić and Tasić managed to bring our team back and on 58 minutes the score was 3-3. After very dramatic half an hour the score remained the same, and Manchester United got through to the semifinals.
The players of the two teams spent the night in a friendly manner, not suspecting the events of the next day. While returning to England, the plain with Manchester United’s expedition crashed at the Munich airport. 21 people died, eight players of the Manchester United first team among them, including 22-year-old Dankan Edwards, claimed by many experts to be the best British player of all time. One of the worst accidents in the world football history brought the two great football teams together forever.

In the next 12 seasons Crvena Zvezda achieved the greatest results in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cups, in which, as well as in the 50s, in the Champions Cup, in successive seasons, they reached semi-finals and quarterfinals.

In the 1961/1962 season our team, through Basel, Hibernian, and Espanyol, reached a double match with Barcelona. If Bora Kostić has been Zvezda’s main weapon a few years before (14 goals in two seasons in the European Champions Cup), now the attackers’ duties have been divided between Melić (4 goals), Stipić and Maravić (3 goals each), and in the triumph over Espanyol 5-0 a double scorer Šekularac and a reinforcement from Partizan Milan Galić were brilliant. In the semi-finals, Barca, led by Šandor Kocsis and Hose Antonio Saldua, has been too strong for our team, and they won, both in Belgrade (2-0) and at home (4-1).

The revenge to the Catalonian club will come eight months later, in the second round of the same competition. Before that, Zvezda had eliminated Rapid from Vienna, and in the duel in Belgrade with “blaugrana” in eight minutes they have turned the score from 0-2 into 3-2. At the Camp Nou stadium, on December 19, 1962, there were no goals until the 86th minute, when Luis Cubilla hit Zvezda’s net. In that time, the away goal didn’t have any significance, so the third decisive game was scheduled for January 2 in Nice. The Azure coast was lucky for our team, and Bora Kostić’s penalty was enough for the victory. In the quarterfinals, Zvezda played with Roma, but after 0:-3 at Olympic, two goals of Malešev weren’t enough.

In the remaining seven performances in that period our team achieved some outstanding victories (5-0 against Athletic Bilbao, 8-0 against Lynnfield Belfast), had some interesting games (defeated in the third decisive game by Rangers, and Foverc Berlin was better by away goals), but they never went through the second round.

The sixties were the most unsuccessful period in the club’s history before the disintegration of Yugoslavia, both in the domestic and international scene. The problems started back in 1958, when Zvezda didn’t qualify for the European competitions, since the Cup Winners’ Cup hadn’t been established yet, and we couldn’t see Zvezda in Europe in the 1963/1964 and 1967/1968 seasons, after they finished seventh and fifth in the national league.

We shall not forget the results of our club in the Mitropa (Central European) Cup. That competition, before the Second World War, had its renown on the level of today’s Champions League, and after renovation in 1956, it preserved the reputation in the next fifteen seasons. Zvezda took part in the first three editions, reaching the quarterfinals in the first, then the semi-finals, before they won the Cup in 1958.

The Mitropa Cup had been played during summer, in the break between the seasons, and in 1958 Zvezda defeated Czech Dukla Pardubic, Locomotive Sofia and Radnički Belgrade, before they triumphed two times over their namesake Ruda Zvezda from Hub, Czech Republic. The trophy was won without losing a single game.

In the following eight years, Zvezda played only once in the Mitropa Cup, but they did not achieved a significant success in the first two seasons upon returning to the competition. However, in the 1967/1968 season (in that time, the competition had already been plaed during regular season), the trophy came once more to Belgrade, in the Marakana shower case. On the way, there were two Hungarian clubs – Diosgyori Miskolc and Ujpest Dózsa and two rivals from Slovakia – Inter Bratislava and, in the final, Spartak Trnava (in that time they won five out of six Czech titles). In all four away games, Zvezda was minimally defeated, and at home won all the matches with the total result 14-2. After winning the second trophy, Zvezda withdrew from the Mitropa Cup, offering a chance to the others, while the competition was slowly losing its reputation.

The seventies – the birth of the European giant
At the very end of the sixties, a new and brilliant Zvezda’s generation came to the scene, made of the players from their own lines. They were coached by Miljan Miljanić and led by Dragan Džajić on the pitch. In the domestic competitions there was no real concurrents (five trophies won in three years), and in 1970 they were finally ready for Europe.

At the beginning of the campaign, not all was looking so good. The old acquaintance Ujpest, which we defeated in Mitropa Cup, but who had defeated us ten years before in Champions League, won a victory in front of their fans 2-0.

However, the glorious “red-and-white” season started on September 30 in the rematch with the Hungarians, in which Zvezda scored four goals. Brilliant games were continued in the duel with a Romanian club Arad (3-0, 3-1), and in the quarterfinal we were awaited by Carl Zeiss from Jena. In Saxony, Zvezda went through the real hell due to referees’ setting – Džajić and Antonijević were sent off, and with the goal out of a given away penalty, Carl Zeiss won 3-2. The rematch at jammed full Marakana became legendary as Zvezda swept the Germans 4-0 and managed to obtain the second quarterfinal in their history.

The games with Panathinaikos were also legendary – on 14th of April Novković, Aćimović and Janković brought a great advantage to Zvezda, Kamaras lessened the lead, and Ostojić scored for the final 4-1 in front of 100,000 people at Marakana. The rematch in Athens 14 days later has been the theme of different theories for three and a half decades already. What is certain is that Zvezda missed their advantage, and that the goals of Antoniadis (2) and Kamaras took PAO to the final in London, where they would lose against Ajax. Djukanović, Djorić, Klenkovski, Novković, Bogićević, Pavlović, Janković, Karasi, Filipović, Aćimović and Ostojić played for Zvezda, Džajić and Antonijević still served four-game suspension from the game in Jena.

The failure didn’t demoralize our footballers, who made it to the third round in the next three seasons, spending the winter in Europe twice. On the way, they made double wins over Valencia (1972) and the Polish champion Stal Mielec (1973), which gave the basis for the third-ranked representation in the World Championship next summer.

However, Zvezda made the greatest success in the games with Liverpool. It was the last Bill Shankly’s season (the owner of one of the most famous statements in history of sports: “Football is not the question of life and death. Football is more important than that”), and even though he brought the title and the UEFA Cup that spring, he wanted to have the farewell with the title of the Champion of Europe. At Marakana, on October 23, 1973, Zvezda won 2-1, and 14 days later Lazarević and Janković provided the same result at Enfield. That would turn out to be the only defeat of Liverpool in front of their fans in the Championship Cup in the whole 20th century!

In the 1974/1975 season came the time for another semi-final, this time in the Cup Winners’ Cup. In the first two rounds, Zvezda has passed by PAOK Thessalonica and Avenir Luxemburg, and in the quarterfinal, the great Real Madrid was in front of our players. On March 6, 1975, Zvezda was awaited at Bernabeu Stadium by Miljan Miljanić, now coaching Real, as well as 125,000 domestic fans, the most numerous audience our club has ever seen. The home team won 2-0, but that was not enough in the duel with Zvezda. Thirteen days later 100,000 people celebrated the magnificent victory, achieved thanks to the goals of Džajić and a goalkeeper Olja Petrović from the penalties. There were no goals in extra time, and our team won in the penalty shootout 6-5, the last goal was scored by Janković, with Petrović saving the penalty of Santillana.

The next month in Budapest Zvezda was defeated by Ferencvaros 2-1, and the return game was legendary as the game with the biggest attedance at Marakana. 96,070 tickets were sold, and it was estimated that there were the entire 110,000 people, twice more than the present capacity of our stadium. All of them went home disappointed, since Hedszi’s goal from the penalty on 83 minutes brought the final 2-2 and a place in the final for Ferencvaros.

In the next three seasons Zvezda didn’t manage to spend the winter in Euro cups, falling out by Hamburger, AEK and Borussia Mönchengladbach, but the 1978/1979 season will enter the history as the most successful European season in the first 45 years of the club.

The first European Final
Once again, the beginning was hard – in Berlin, Zvezda received three goals from Dynamo in 30 minutes, had quick return twice, but in the finish they gave up and were defeated 5-2 with Brilet’s goal on 89 minutes. The lesson has been learned, and the finish will be Zvezda’s time until the end of the competition. In the rematch, the Germans got a quick lead and kept it until the 58th minute when the turnover came, sealed with a goal of Šestić on 90 minutes for the final 4-1.

Against Sporting Hihon, Zvezda won the away game and drew at home with both goals scored in the last ten minutes. The third rival was Arsenal London, which was also eliminated by 1-0 and 1-1, and the decisive goal was scored by Savić at Highbury, three minutes before the end of the game, after one of the best actions in the club’s history. The first spring rival was also from England – West Bromwich Albion – and there was no change, even the scores were the same – the routine of 1-0 and 1-1, Savić in Belgrade (a free kick) and Šestić in the Birmingham suburbs (a lob) scored in the last five minutes.

The quarterfinals leads Zvezda once again to Berlin, to the other side of the wall were they were awaited by Hertha. The first home match Zvezda won as usual 1-0 (the fifth goal by Dule Savić in the competition), and in Berlin, the home team already led 2-0 from on 18 minutes. However, Milos Šestić has ensured the elimination of another team from Berlin and a place in the final.

And there, our team was awaited by Borussia Mönchengladbach, the team with the most trophies won during the 70s (five titles), which, from 1973 until 1980, played five European finals. At Marakana, on May 9, Šestić continued to terrorize the Germans, but Jurišić’s own goal gave the rival a psychological advantage before the rematch. This game was played in Düsseldorf, where Italian Mikeloti gave away a penalty to the Germans, and the Danish player Simonsen sealed Zvezda's fate.

Red-and-white shirts in the final two matches were worn by Stojanović, Jovanović, Jovin, Muslin (Krmpotić), Miletović, Jurisić, Petrović, Blagojević, Savić, Šestić (Milovanović), Milosavljević, and they were coached by Branko Stanković.

The first European Final
Once again, the beginning was hard – in Berlin, Zvezda received three goals from Dynamo in 30 minutes, had quick return twice, but in the finish they gave up and were defeated 5-2 with Brilet’s goal on 89 minutes. The lesson has been learned, and the finish will be Zvezda’s time until the end of the competition. In the rematch, the Germans got a quick lead and kept it until the 58th minute when the turnover came, sealed with a goal of Šestić on 90 minutes for the final 4-1.

Against Sporting Hihon, Zvezda won the away game and drew at home with both goals scored in the last ten minutes. The third rival was Arsenal London, which was also eliminated by 1-0 and 1-1, and the decisive goal was scored by Savić at Highbury, three minutes before the end of the game, after one of the best actions in the club’s history. The first spring rival was also from England – West Bromwich Albion – and there was no change, even the scores were the same – the routine of 1-0 and 1-1, Savić in Belgrade (a free kick) and Šestić in the Birmingham suburbs (a lob) scored in the last five minutes.

The quarterfinals leads Zvezda once again to Berlin, to the other side of the wall were they were awaited by Hertha. The first home match Zvezda won as usual 1-0 (the fifth goal by Dule Savić in the competition), and in Berlin, the home team already led 2-0 from on 18 minutes. However, Milos Šestić has ensured the elimination of another team from Berlin and a place in the final.

And there, our team was awaited by Borussia Mönchengladbach, the team with the most trophies won during the 70s (five titles), which, from 1973 until 1980, played five European finals. At Marakana, on May 9, Šestić continued to terrorize the Germans, but Jurišić’s own goal gave the rival a psychological advantage before the rematch. This game was played in Düsseldorf, where Italian Mikeloti gave away a penalty to the Germans, and the Danish player Simonsen sealed Zvezda's fate.

Red-and-white shirts in the final two matches were worn by Stojanović, Jovanović, Jovin, Muslin (Krmpotić), Miletović, Jurisić, Petrović, Blagojević, Savić, Šestić (Milovanović), Milosavljević, and they were coached by Branko Stanković.

The new management has already prepared a five-year plan with the idea that our club should win the European Championship title, but in the first three seasons Zvezda did not even made it through to the first spring round. It all started with the easy win against Tricia and a debacle in Bridge, but already in the fall of 1988 Marakana welcomed a new super spectacle with the unexpected reprisal.

In the second round of the Championship Cup, Zvezda played the European "Dream team" of that time – AC Milan. Berlusconi’s team, led by the Dutch trio Gullit – van Basten – Rijkaard, were the absolute favourite, but at San Siro, Zvezda got a 1-1 draw for the second time in the same decade. The hero of the day was Dragan Stojković, whose solo-goal was one of the most beautiful in the club’s history, and the response by Virdis came a minute later.

The rematch at Marakana lasted for the whole 24 hours. On November 9 Savićević gave Zvezda the lead, but the match was cancelled on 61 minutes due to the fog. The next day the match was replayed, van Basten and Stojković scored, so game went into extra time and penalty shootout. Stojković and Prosinečki scored from the white spot, and Galli defended Savićević’s and Mrkela’s try. For Milan, all four shooters were precise: Baresi, van Basten, Evani and Rijkaard. “Rosoneri” would also, in the next season, become unbeatable in Europe, and after that Zvezda’s time would come.

However, until then, UEFA Cup 1989/1990 should be played, and the competition, as ten years before, was opened with a victory against Galatasaray. After that, they won two times against Zalgiris, and on November 22, two goals by Dejan Savićević gave Zvezda huge advantage over Cologne. Fourteen days later Zvezda controlled the game for the whole hour, then Falko Götz managed to bring his team back in the play with two goals, Prosinečki missed a hundred-percent chance on 90 minute, but in the next minute Frank Ordenevic sent “Billy-goats” to the quarterfinals. The next chance Zvezda would get the following fall, but this time they would use it.

After the title won in Bari, Zvezda had to defend the trophy out of their country, due to the war in Former Yugoslavia. The UEFA changed the form of the championship that year and instead of the Cup they started the Champions League, in which eight best teams from the continent participated. On their way to the group stage, Zvezda beat Portdown in Szegedin and Apollon Limassol, and as their opponents in the group they got Sampdoria, Anderlecht and Panathinaikos.

It all started with the defeat 0-2 at Marassi, the first after 17 matches (the fifth longest series without defeat in the elite European competition), after which Anderlecht was defeated in Budapest, and Panathinaikos in spring in Athens and Sofia. The key game Zvezda played against Sampdoria, when they lost the 1-0 lead and were defeated 1-3, with the Italian club winning the place in the London final. The end of an era, in which Zvezda have, in 22 years, progressed 11 times to the spring rounds in Europe and played 24 successive seasons in one of the Euro Cups, ended in Brussels, where we were defeated 3-2 in a match without any significance for the competition.

At the end of May the United Nations had our country under sanctions, dislodging Serbian and Montenegrin football from the international scene. When they return to Europe, Zvezda will not be treated deservedly.

Return to Europe
During the 1994/1995 season the UEFA and FIFA accepted our football players back, but while the national team continued where they had stopped in the spring of 1992, the clubs had all their results erased and were treated as the beginners in the European competition. That’s how Zvezda, the European Champion in 1991, the group participant in 1992 and among the last sixteen in 1990, (all three years counted while deciding upon the seeded teams in the summer of 1995), was placed to the bottom of the list and instead of the place in the Champions League (as the Champion of SRJ in 1995) was moved to the UEFA Cup. That decision will have long-term catastrophic consequences for our team – instead of enjoying the merits of its own many-year work and getting to the group phase of the Champions League over easier rivals, they would get harder opponents from the start and the competition would start already in July.

The first game upon the return Zvezda played on August 8, 1995 against Swiss Xamax. 60,000 people came to greet the new generation which, in spite of all the problems, had great ambitions, but after a sequence of missed chances, they were punished on 87 minutes by a goal by Vitlov. In the rematch there were no gols, so Zvezda’s season ended in August, which never happened before or after this occasion.

If the first season in Europe was shocking, the second was promising. Instead of Ljupko, the coach was Vladimir Petrović, and the leaders of the new generation were the teenagers Dejan Stanković and Perica Ognjenović. Zvezda has eliminated Hearts after two draws, and after a minimal defeat in Keiserslouthern, came a glorious night that ended with three goals for our team in extra time. The award for a 4-0 victory was the duel with Barcelona, for the fourth time in history. Barca was the strongest team out of the Champions League, which they affirmed by winning the Cup Winners' Cup. However, Zvezda didn’t surrender, they had the advantage in both games (which ended 1-3 and 1-1), and the atmosphere at Marakana on the last day of October 1996 was probably the best in the last 15 years, with magnificent choreography and the panorama of Belgrade in the west stand.

The next season, Zvezda had trouble with Helsinki and Ekeren, and in the end they were stuck in the mud from the heavy rain which started parallel with the game. It was similar when Zvezda played two summers later, when it had trouble with Neftchi Baku, and latter on were defeated by Montpellier.

Between these two seasons, a quite decent sequence in the UEFA Cup has been seen, where the net of weak Kolheti from Georgia was hit 11 times, before the respectable rivals from Rotor Volgograd and Metz were eliminated, and the unbeatable obstacle for Zvezda was Olympic Lyon, which took the advantage of the UEFA's double standards and forced to play in Bucharest instead of Belgrade.

After five years, Zvezda won the title in 2000 and made it for the first time to the reformed qualifications for the Champions League, where, after the victories over KI Klaksvik and Torpedo Kutiasi, we played with Dynamo Kiev. It would turn out to be the best chance in the first five tries to reach the elite competition – it was 0-0 in Kiev , and in Belgrade Zvezda had the lead for 11 minutes, but an away goal by Valentin Bjalkevič was crucial. Zvezda moved to UEFA Cup, where they outplayed Leicester City (even though the return game was played in Vienna), then had a good match with Celta, until it turned out that, due to the procedure fault, two players who didn’t have the right to play in Vigo were in the team .

A new try in the Champions League followed, victory against Omonia, then 0-0 and 0-3 with Bayer Leverkusen, the later finalist. In UEFA Cup, Zvezda suffered a serious defeat, since they were eliminated by the weak team CSKA Kiev in the first round .

Another two seasons in UEFA Cup folowed, the first away games in Kazakhstan and Moldova, victories over Chievo and Odense and further on failures against their neighbours Lazio and Rosenborg. Against the Norwegians, Zvezda had a great chance to proceed to the spring round – an extra player in Trondheim and a goalless away draw , but in Belgrade, the only goal was scored by Brattbakk.

The new title in 2004 and a great preparation period of the rejuvenated team brought great ambitions, and two wins in Belgrade over Young Boys and PSV just made them stronger. One day prior to the rematch in Eindhoven Nikola Zigić was injured and Zvezda was faced with a serious problem. The inexperienced team reacted badly, PSV won the rematch 5-0 (the most convincing defeat in the European club’s history), which would leave a deep mark on the whole generation. Still in shock, our team was defeated in Saint Petersburg by Zenit 4-0 and was out of the UEFA Cup, and Ljupko Petrović left the coaching position for the third time .

In the new form of the UEFA cup, Zvezda successfully stepped in 2005 – in the qualifications Croatian Inter was eliminated; in the first round Braga was beaten with an away goal , so Zvezda made it to the group with Basel, Tromsø, Roma and Strasbourg. Against the Swiss, Crvena Zvezda played without audience, but we had the lead, played well, and lost by a goal three minutes before the end. A victory was expected in Norway , but a smashing defeat happened. When it seemed that there were no hopes for our team to progress, they had a smashing victory against Roma, with the brilliant performance of Nikola Zigić, so the last round’s victory in Strasbourg guaranteed the progress to the next spring round. In Alzas the game started very well, Zvezda had a 2-0 advantage until the last 10 minutes, but two great mistakes of the defence enabled a teenager Gamer to spring into fame and 10 seconds before the game ended gave a severe blow to our team.

In the 2006/2007 season Zvezda tried to reach the Champions League, had an easy game with Cork, but then it played Milan. The future European Champion won 1-0 at home, and later on 2-1 in Belgrade. In the first round of the UEFA Cup, Zvezda was the favourite over Czech Liberec, but again got defeated twice, with two conceded goals in the last minutes and one goal on 80 seconds in the rematch.