Beautiful Belgrade

Where do I start??? :) It was a helluva trip. I had booked up for the day trip after hearing that Red Star fans were not the most welcoming, and for once it looked as though I made the right call when I heard reports on Monday night that fans over there were told not to leave their hotels as the police couldn't guarantee their safety. Bit of a scandalous situation in this day and age but never mind. The story was then plastered over the front pages of the gutter press with a little exagerration thrown in for effect. Thankfully my flight had departed by the time my mother saw them.



For the first time ever I was actually more nervous about what might await us over there rather than the game itself. However I needn't have worried, there were no baying mobs waiting at the airport and we spent a decent day in the centre of Belgrade without any hassle and enjoyed some banter with the locals. We had been told that we would be getting escorted to the game well in advance of kickoff but thankfully they changed their plans and decided to take us there at the last minute. Good idea seeing as the Red Star fans had been there for up to 4hours prior to kick off.

When we got to the stadium the atmosphere was incredible. I've been to many away games in Europe and seen some hostile atmospheres but nothing came close to this. I spoke to one guy who had been to Galatasary and he said even that didn't come close. There was around 500 of our fans there and we were herded into a small section of the ground surrounded by riot police. We had been warned of possible heavy-handedness from the police thankfully that was unfounded as they treated us well, some even indulging in a bit of banter. This was in stark contrast to Pamplona last year where the scumbags started indiscrimantly hitting fans for no reason in the worst case of police brutality I'd ever seen.

As for the game itself it was far from a classic and pretty nerve shredding at times but we got the job done and will be in the draw for the group stages :). So all in all it was a good trip (much better than I was expecting) topped off with a great result.

Oh almost forgot to mention that Belgrade has some of the finest looking ladies I have ever seen :)