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FOOTBALL EUROPE: Crvena Zvezda bow to Bajević

/noticias.info/ by Aleksandar Bošković
from Belgrade

With FK Crvena Zvezda streets ahead of the opposition in Serbia, coach Dušan Bajević has good reason to be proud of his work since returning home this summer.

Streets ahead
After 16 rounds of the inaugural Serbian season, the Belgrade side are in a league of their own. A full 12 points clear of second-placed FK Apatin, much credit for their success goes to coach Bajević, who returned to Serbia from Greece after a 20-year absence to take charge of the club only for a raft of top players – Nikola Zigić, Boško Janković, Nenad Kovačević, Aleksandar Luković, Milan Dudić, Vladimir Stojković and Milan Biševac – to depart.

'Really good period'
"In Serbia, selling players is the main way for clubs to survive," said the coach. "I have to accept that. Everything would have been easier and better if we could have counted on quality players in the longer term, but in a hard situation we found the best solution. We finished the autumn in first position with a big lead. Also, we played well. Every coach wants more, but that was a really good period. We have been like a family - we have had no problems."

Black spot
Elimination from the UEFA Cup against FC Slovan Liberec marked the only major black spot of the autumn for the club. "A few weeks earlier, AC Milan knocked us out of the UEFA Champions League [third] qualifying round," said Bajević. "We had no luck in that draw. Liberec was our darkest hour, but we got through it."

Happy anniversary
On 8 December, the club celebrated the 15th anniversary of their 3-0 success against Chilean side CD Colo Colo in the European/South American Cup final in Yokohama – a result that made the then European Champion Clubs' Cup holders the champions of the world. That team's goalkeeper, Stevan Stojanović, is now Crvena Zvezda's sporting director and organised a party to mark the anniversary, while elsewhere two members of the coaching staff were looking forward to travelling to Spain to link up with Real Madrid CF as part of a new cooperation agreement between the two clubs.

Spring campaign
Bajević, meanwhile, is looking ahead to a successful spring. "We must continue on the same path," he said. "More victories, more points, more good performances and a domestic double, the tenth in our history – those are our targets. It's a hard path, but winners have to do such things. I believe in this club. Crvena Zvezda are giants and we will prove that." notas_de_prensa_archivo