The match started with a minute-long silence to remember the victims of the helicopter tragedy.
Rad didn’t waste much time. They didn’t get scared of the powerful opponent, nor from the "lion’s cave" stadium of ul. Humska. They attacked in the 3rd minute already, but Živković saved the dangerous shot coming from the left side. In the 8th minute they could be found again in our penalty area. One of them headed the ball to our goal line, but missed. A minute later Bandalovski’s shot arrived at Rad’s goalmouth. Kojić was waiting for it there eagerly. The striker made a tricky shot, but even this try was too wide.
The 10th minute brought the match’s (and Partizan’s) first corner. The chance was missed, but we still possessed the ball. Ninković had a try, he wanted to pass the ball from the left, but it again ended in a corner. In the 14th minute Kojić ran up and wanted to kick it to the goal, but the goalkeeper threw himself into the way in time. Rad immediately started a counter-attack, when Balažic threw himself with a hazardous movement, saving the day. Players of the guest team complained for penalty, but the referee sent out everyone from the penalty area and waved for goal kick. (The slow motion replay confirmed that Balažic didn’t play handball.)
Rad was still an equal opponent for Partizan at this point. They ran a lot, attacked a lot and they had dangerous counter-attacks. In the 16th minute their striker Mihajlović had a shot from 18 metres, but it flew out above the crossbar. A minute later it was all the very same, now with Đurić sending a shot to our goal, similarly from approx. 18 metres, and the ball flew out above the crossbar just the same way. In the 18th minute we fumbled too much with an attack. We ran up to Rad’s penalty area, but there we started to pass the ball here and there instead of shooting, finally guest defenders cleared the area.
I swear they were telling jokes to each other in the meantime.
In the 21st minute it was Bandalovski who got a great pass. He ran up, dribbled himself through the defense wall and shot. Pity he missed, it could have been a great goal.
At this point Rad’s defense line worked excellently. It was impossible to reach their goalmouth, therefore Kojić tried rather a distant shot in the 25th minute, but it flew out above the crossbar.
Two minutes later Average Fan had a screaming heart-attack, when Saša Ilić got the ball around the half-line and passed it to Ninković. Džigi ran up on the left and served it on golden plate to Kojić, who was about to score the goal of his life. Koja wanted to shot with a bicycle kick, but goalkeeper Radunović made the save of his life instead, about 1 mm in front of the goal line. Ninković even tripped over him.
In the 29th minute it was almost 0:1, but thank God the assistant was waving for offside way before Rad’s player shot.
A minute later we got a free kick. Jelić pushed Babović to the ground. It happened about 22 metres from the goal line. Drinčić stood behind the ball. He ran up...
...and made a bomb shot. 1:0
In the 39th minute again Bandalovski ran up on the right side, it ended in a corner. Then two minutes later we got a free kick again, now 30 metres from the goal line. Again Drinčić stood behind the ball, but this time the goalkeeper saved.
We were in the extra time, when Ninković got a great pass from Kojić. He made a huge solo, dribbling Rad’s defense line to pieces, then kicked. The shot hit the goalpost.
"Ej, bre, alo, bre"
Champy, the mascot
A minute later Kojić got a ball from the depths and passed on with head. Grbić sped up and grabbed it, then gave it to Ninković, who was waiting in the middle. The midfielder shot and the net tore to pieces. 2:0
In the 54th minute Kojić ran up on the left and passed to Bandalovski at the other side. The Bulgarian defender shot, the goalkeeper saved, with great luck. Two minutes later Drinčić had a distant shot, but it was too wide.
The 65th minute brought the next attack. Mihajlović, Rad’s striker (Rad was playing with a much less pace at this point) sent a distant bomb shot to Partizan’s goal line, Živković had a great save.
Three minutes later something interesting happened. At the southern tribune a banner appeared.
Then this one:
And finally this one:
In short about the banners: in the previous round of the SuperLiga the match between Crvena Zvezda and Vojvodina brought a 3:0 victory to the neighbour team. One, but rather two of these three goals were scored from brutal offside, but still the referee validated them. The video about the match circulated around the Serbian sports media, everyone analyzed them all over, some demanded to chop the head of the referee as well as the leadership of FSS, others tried to explain it away, without much success. Partizan fans messaged to FSS leadership with these banners to make them sure everyone knows their mafia methods, their "phone calls" to blackmail and threaten referees to "influence" the result of the matches the way they want.
You can see the highlights of the match here, if your stomach is strong enough.
What made it all even more interesting was that referee Jeremić saw the transparents, got hysterical and stopped the match. He said, the match would not go on until those "insulting" banners can be seen.
Dear Mr. Jeremić,
What’s this servile attitude? Not you were the referee of that match. How on Earth do you know what these banners were about? What do you mean by "insulting"? Do you think the leaders of FSS are not big boys enough to stand up for themselves, if needed? Or did you maybe also got such a phone call? Dear Mr. Jeremić, those banners did not contain hate speech, racism or politics, they were within fair play. As fans have no other forums to tell their opinion to be seen by those in charge, they have to use banners on matches to be heard.
So, dear Mr. Jeremić, please, go to hell.
Finally the match could go on in the 72nd minute, but fans were chanting heavily.
In the 76th minute Rad had a shot after long fumbling, but it was too wide. A minute later Kojić got the ball. He passed it to Grbić with a brilliant "Oxford" trick. The midfielder got the ball, finally it ended as a corner. Afterwards Balažic grabbed the ball, he even shot, but the ball left the field above the crossbar.
In the 79th minute the ball was again at Kojić. He sent a great pass to the middle, but there was nobody in the goalmouth. Finally Grbić arrived and passed the ball back to Kojić, who quickly ran to the middle. His kick was too weak, the chance was missed out.
In the meantime wildfire covered the southern tribune.
(photo: Twitter)
In the 88th minute Babović sent the ball to Petrović on the left. Petrović passed it to the middle, but his shot went to corner. In the extra time Šaponjić got a fantastic pass from Babović, but his shot hit the right goalpost.
Highlights:
Facts:
Venue: Partizan Stadion, Belgrade
Number of spectators: 5000
Referee: Milan Jeremić (assistants: Milan Mihajlović, Jovica Milin - 4th assistant: Dragan Bogićević - goal line assistants: Ilija Brdar, Siniša Sremac)
FK Partizan: Ž. Živković - Bandalovski, Petrović, Balažic, B. Ilić - S. Ilić, Ninković, Grbić (A. Živković, 80.), Babović (Brašanac, 90+2.), Drinčić - Kojić (Šaponjić, 88)
Head coach: Marko Nikolić
FK Rad: Radunović - Milošević, Đurić, Maraš, Obradović - Gnjatić, Rodić (Nenadović, 74.) - Simić (Mladenović, 62.), Raspopović, Mihajlović - Jelić (Marković, 82.)
Head coach: Milan Milanović
Goal scorers: Drinčić (30.), Ninković (49.)
Yellow card: Jelić (29.)
Current championship standings:
1. Partizan 46 points
2. Crvena Zvezda 42 points
3. Čukarički 36 points
4. Vojvodina 33 points
5. Novi Pazar 27 points
6. Jagodina 27 points
7. OFK Beograd 26 points
8. Rad 25 points
9. Mladost 23 points
10. Spartak Zlatibor Voda 21 points
11. Borac 20 points
12. Napredak 20 points
13. Donji Srem 20 points
14. Radnički Niš 18 points
15. FK Voždovac 18 points
16. Radnički 1923 11 points
(unmarked photos: Facebook/Fudbalski klub Partizan)
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