Back at ‘Marakana’ and back from being behind! Crvena zvezda marked the long-awaited home match with a comeback against Radnik and a championship party. The visitors took the lead midway through the first half, but the red and whites wouldn’t be held back and they went on to score four.
Ground: Rajko Mitić Stadium
Attendance: 14,381
Referee: Jovan Šegrt.
Goalscorers: Pankov ‘29, Babić 38’, Radulović (pen) 85’, Simić 90’ - Makarić 23’
Crvena zvezda: Borjan, Gajić, Pankov, Babić, Konatar (46’ Degenek), Jovičić, Nikolić (46’ Vulić), Garcia (46’ Radulović), Gavrić (75’ Simić), Tomané, Boakye (60’ Pavkov).
Substitutes: Popović, Degenek, Vulić, Simić, Radulović, Vukanović, Pavkov.
Radnik: I. Kostić (86’ N. Kostić), Stevanović, Stanković (86’ Stojković), Makarić, Danoski (72’ Mićić), Stamenković (72’ Georgiev), Pejčić, Dimitrić (66’ Kojić), Kričak, Stojanović, Mitošević.
Substitutes: N. Kostić, Georgiev, Stojković, Jović, Islamović, Kojić, Mićić.
Dejan Stanković decided to use his squad for this match and the fans got the opportunity to see some young guns in action. Our team started brightly with Mateo and Nikolić passing the ball around in midfield. The first chance came for Boakye, who headed over from a Mateo free kick.
Debut boy Marko Konatar got the chance to play on the left side with another Zvezda Academy graduate, Željko Gavrić and it was a joy to see the two youngsters strutting their stuff at ‘Marakana’. It was Gavrić who had a couple of attempts early on, but it was the Surdulica side who scored first through Milan Makarić.
Radnik managed to hold onto the lead for just six minutes before Radovan Pankov leveled with a bullet header following a corner. And Zvezda were ahead just eight minutes later as another centre back bundled the ball in. Srđan Babić scored with his hip, but they all count! That completed the quick comeback.
Start of the second half marked the debut for another promising youngster as Andrija Rdulović took the pitch for the very first time as a first team player. The winger born in 2002 took only two minutes to get his first shot away and he nearly found the corner from the edge of the box.
Zvezda dominated the game, but goals looked like eluding the red and whites for majority of the second 45 minutes. Miloš Vulić and Richmond Boakye came close, but Kostić was on form as he just kept his team in the match.
Tomané and Simić showed great desire as they pressed the opposition’s defenders high and their effort paid off as the latter was brought down in the box by Stevanović. It was the young Andrija Radulović who took the resulting penalty and dispatched it with confidence to spark big celebrations. A goal on his debut! Hopefully just the first of many to come.
And Veljko Simić produced a terrific low finish late on to get on the scoresheet and make it 4-1 with the last meaningful kick of the match.
We now turn to Wednesday’s Kup Srbije semi final encounter at Partizan.