Liverpool vs Red Star Belgrade24th October 2018, 8pmReferee: Daniel Siebert (GER)Assistant referees: Jan Seidel (GER) and Rafael Foltyn (GER) Fourth official: Christian Gittelmann (GER)Additional assistant referees: Tobias Welz (GER) and Patrick Ittrich (GER)Match odds: Liverpool 1/20, Draw 14/1, Red Star 45/1Welcome to the preview of Liverpool's home tie with Red Star Belgrade (aka Crvena Zvezda).Crvenza Zvezda or Red Star Belgrade as they are better known as, are expected to be easy pickings in the group but I personally don’t see it that way, not much is known about them but that makes them more dangerous.I would expect a tougher game in Belgrade than Anfield for obvious reasons but there is still work to be done.Recently on RAWK we have come to discuss the upcoming game with Red Star fan Senjak boys and he has provided some helpful and valuable insights, more of this later.History Lesson:Red Star might not be known to younger fans but the club has some impressive history. They played a part in two very historic moments in English football, one of which was a tragedy given it was Red Star who were opponents to Manchester United in 1958 when the Busby Babes team was sadly torn apart as United’s plane crashed on the way home. It had been an intriguing tie prior to this, Red Star lost narrowly at Old Trafford in the first leg and in the second leg they looked done for when they were 3-0 down at half time, but they never gave in and the game on the night finished 3-3 though it meant Red Star went out in the quarter final stage 5-4 on aggregate.The previous year Red Star had made it to the semi final but lost to Fiorentina. As I said they had history with English clubs in Europe as in Bill Shankly’s final season in charge, Red Star ended what turned out to be Shankly’s last chance at winning the European cup. Red Star won both legs by 2 goals to 1. It was the first time Liverpool had ever lost at home in the European cup, something that wouldn’t happen again until 2001.Incidentally, an article on that game was posted on the Liverpool echo site this morning and can be read here.https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-red-star-belgrade-helped-15310189In 1979 Red Star made it to the Uefa Cup final, having beaten West Brom en route but they ultimately lost a replay to Borussia Monchengladbach. In the late 1980s Yugoslav football was beginning to take shape, in 1987 Red Star apparently gave themselves a 5 year plan with the ultimate goal of winning the European cup. That same year Red Star recorded a fine win over Real Madrid in the famous Marakana stadium but ultimately went out on away goals. Whilst Red star were winning domestic league after league, they were desperate to carve out European success.In the 1988-89 season Red star appeared to be on the verge of eliminating the mighty Ac Milan of the Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard era, winning 1-0 on the night in Belgrade and 2-1 on aggregate, the match was abandoned with 25 minutes left due to fog. It was rearranged to restart the next day but Red Star went out on penalties to the eventual winners, what may have been?Red Star's greatest night and subsequent break upIn the 1990-91 season it finally happened, wins over the likes of Rangers, Dynamo Dresden and Bayern Munich lead Red Star to the European cup final where they beat Marseilles on penalties after a 0-0 draw. It was a poor game but the Red Star team contained some world class talent, around this time Red Star had players in this era such as Sinisa Mihajlovic, Robert Prosinecki, Darko Pancev, Vladimir Jugovic, Dejan Savicevic and Dragan Stojkovic (who actually played for Marseilles in the 1991 final). The following season Red Star were among the favorites but political tension in Yugoslavia was to spell the end of the glorious era, the country was at war with UEFA even barring them from playing matches at home. The team staged home games in Sofia and Budapest but a crucial defeat in a semi final group stage saw Red Star lose their grip on the European cup, a defeat to Sampdoria ended their reign. From then on the country was at war and Yugoslavian football suffered, independence was declared splitting the country up.It should have been a glorious era for Yugoslavia, they were bigger issues given people died in a war, but football wise Yugoslavia were for me one of the best teams in world football. They narrowly went out at the quarter final stage of the 1990 world cup and the war and UN sanctions meant UEFA barred them from competing in Euro 1992 , they had qualified ahead of Denmark who took their place and won, for me they could have won euro 1992.I have always felt the team would have won a world cup, their players proved all over Europe just how good they were, since the early 90s the split lead to several new teams in Europe. Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Montenegro (the latter was initially Serbia and Montenegro up to their split) and more recently Kosovo. Yugoslavia did continue as a team briefly, they made the last 16 of the 1998 world cup and competed at Euro 2000. Croatia made a huge impression, quarter finalists at euro 1996 and semi-finalists at the 1998 world cup it showed to me that in a different world had they all stayed together they might have won a world cup, I have always been convinced they would. Back to Red Star, more recently the club compete in the Serbian super league, they have won this three times since 2014, financial irregularities have meant that up until now Red Star have not competed in the Champions league, and with that I am brought back to the excellent insight provided by Senjak boys. Like Liverpool, Red star fans get behind their team to create some brilliant atmosphere at their Marakana Stadium (officially the Rajko Mitic stadium and previously the Red Star Stadium) which once held 100,000 and now has a seating capacity similar to Anfield.SenjakSenjaks quotes :“Given our history and our fans you can expect a charged up team at home that given our limitations will play on the counter. We're really good at countering (not at the level your front and midfield six are obviously) but we've brought in some solid players over the last 3 days and I expect us to be up for it. Our coach (Vladan Milojević), who came two seasons ago, has transformed and modernized the way we play. It is due to him that we have been revived and his coaching staff is notorious for picking apart the opposition tactically. That is how we've beaten sides that financially and on paper should have beaten us comfortably over the course of the last two seasons including Sparta Prague, Krasnodar and Red Bull Salzburg, the team that made the Europa League semi last season. This Salzburg side should be noted did knock out Real Sociedad, SS Lazio and Borussia Dortmund last season.”Tactically:“The coach has instilled a very defensive, counter attacking mentality in European games over the past two seasons, and in most of our games (outside of Salzburg away) we haven't really conceded much. We typically play a 4-2-3-1 with creative wingers and an excellent target man with an attacking midfielder in behind that has room to operate on either flank. In central midfield we have a box to box midfielder and one defensive midfielder who tracks and picks apart many opposition attacks. Our right central back and right full back are huge Red Star fans and as such will give it their all. To think of Belgrade, maybe the first thing that comes to mind is war and that it is not a good place to go, Senjak has been at pains to point out this is not the case. Whilst reading his post I am touched he rummaged through RAWK enough to find one of my old posts from 2011 detailing the Red star team of the early 1990s, here is a link to the said post:https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=273063.0Form guide Red Star opened their account with a 0-0 draw at home to Napoli, although the away side did hit the woodwork twice. The team on the night was Borjan Stojkovic, Savic, Degenek, Rodic Jovicic, Krsticic Marin, Causic, El Fardou Ben Nabou, BoakyeManager: Vladen MilojevicThe only change made for the game at PSG was the inclusion of Veljko Simic in place of Boakye upfront. PSG’s much feared forward line of Neymar, Cavani and Mbappe gave Red Star nightmares, all three scored in a crushing 6-1 win, the game has since been investigated for match fixing amid allegations a Red Star official place a bet of some €5 million euros for his team to lose by 5 goals, bizarre stuff altogether. Domestically things are going well, Red Star have dropped just two points from 12 games and already are 7 points clear averaging just under three goals a game. Richmond Boakye is the teams top scorer with 5 showing a good spread of goals among the team.For Liverpool its been a mixed bag in Europe so far this season, a tremendous win over PSG didn’t flatter us but this was followed by a god awful defeat in Napoli, whilst it was only 1-0 and Napoli only won it in the last minute it wasn’t unfair, this season there have been few signs of the blistering attacking brilliance we saw last season but hopefully we will see some of it on Wednesday.Sadio Mane is an injury doubt with a broken thumb, whilst captain Jordan Henderson will be checked on having lasted only 45 minutes against Huddersfield. Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho will be hoping for some game time if the captain doesn’t make it, there was a boost for Liverpool with the quicker than expected return of James Milner in Saturdays win which kept Liverpool level on points with Man City, Adam Lallana also managed to start. Naby Keita’s frustrating season will mean he is likely to miss out, Keita (one of approximately 22 players injured for us on international duty) is likely to be out for another couple of weeks with a hamstring problem.Once more thanks to Senjak for his contributions. CMON YOU REDS
19' - Fabinhow fwoing into the GGOOOOLALALALALLALLALBobby20'
4 Red Star press high and we have trouble getting it up. Misplaced pass leads to FK for the guests. Headed away.
Did we sign Pele?
