Crvena zvezda made it 15 wins in 16 Superliga games as they competed a league double over Dinamo Vranje with a 3-0 victory in Surdulica.
Ground: Radnik Stadium
Attendance: 2,500
Referee: Nenad Đokić
Goalscorers: Stojiljković 29‘, Babić 48‘, Simić 56‘
Dinamo Vranje: Đurić, Stanković, Veškovac (Stanojević 68'), Gašić, Sićović (Ratković 46'), Đurišić, Karapandžić (Stevanović 62'), Pavišić, Nedeljković, Suraka, Dimitrov.
Crvena zvezda: Popović, Gobeljić, Degenek, Babić, Rodić (Joveljić 61'), Jovičić (Milijaš 46'), Ebecilo, Milić (Hajdin 46'), Marin, Simić, Stojiljković.
Vladan Milojević made quite a few changes to the team that beat Liverpool earlier this week. Eight players were left out of the starting eleven: Borjan, Stojković, Savić, Krstičić, Jovančić, Ben, Srnić and Pavkov.
But the red and whites proved too strong for the Superliga new boys, who simply couldn‘t cope with the Belgrade side.
It was a lively affair in the first half hour, with Dinamo making a few attempts of scoring what would probably be regarded as a surprise opener. But their hopes were wiped out 29 minutes in as Stojiljković dispossesed Dinamo‘s goalkeeper Uroš Đurić, who was needlessly dwelling on the ball just outside his area, and slotted into the empty net to make it 1-0 to the champions.
Marko Marin and Veljko Simić were lively in the final third and caused all kinds of problems for Dinamo‘s back line, but there were no more goals in the first half.
Vladan Milojević made a couple of substitutions at half time as Nenad Milijaš and Stefan Hajdin took the field in place of Branko Jovičić and Nemanja Milić.
Just three minutes into second half, Zvezda lead was doubled. Lorenzo Ebecilio sent a teasing cross into the box following a corner and Srđan Babić rose the highest and headed into the net from close range.
On the other end, our goalkeeper Zoran Popović did well to keep Dimitrov out with a decent save. But it was all Zvezda and it was 3-0 before the hour mark.
It was a fine team goal as Marko Marin played a terrific diagonal ball for the onrushing Stefan Hajdin on the rihgt hand side of Dinamo‘s penalty box. The defender spotted Veljko Simić on the edge of the area and laid the ball perfectly for Simić to volley home with Đurić unable to stop it.
Shortly after Dejan Joveljić replaced Milan Rodić and was quick to get into couple of dangerous positions. However, despite having the ball in Dinamo‘s net it was ruled offside.
There were a couple more chances for Veljko Simić, but none resulted in goals as the game ended with Crvena zvezda running out 3-0 winners ahead of the upcoming international break.