Crvena Zvezda - Partizan

Friday, 04 December 2009 15:17

Derby between Crvena Zvezda (known as Red Star) and Partizan is a well known match all over Europe. Before this match the English newspaper Daily Mail ranked this match as the 4th best in the world, and im sure its not the football they talk about.

I stayed in hotel in Novi Sad, short trip from Belgrade. Early match day me and my friend took a taxi into Belgrade and arrived at the stadium around 11:00 saturday morning. There was already cops at nearly every corner when we got closer to the stadium, fully dressed up with shield and helmet, ready for action.
We met a contact who got us inside the stadium to see. Lot of ultras was already working at the tifo, mostly youths. They prepared choreo at the whole stadium. We went into city centrum to look around for a few hours, while ultras from Delije finished the tifo.

Around 1 hour before kick off we came back to stadium. Cops had blocked most of the roads, and we ended up few minutes down for "Marakana", not far away from home stadium of Partizan. From there we walked up with lot of supporters, none of them used club/group clothes or colors, so it was really hard to know who was who. But not much could happend, as lot of cops stood at the side ready to break into riots.

I had a ticket to Delijes section. Was a lot of people outside trying to get in when we arrived. Cops and security searched everybody as usual. I found a place on the side of the group where I could see the whole curva of Delije. Really fantastic view when the whole curva was filled up with that many supporters. Grobari and Delije was already chanting against each other, and it was obious they hate each other.

Kick off:
When players entered the pitch Grobari (maybe 8000 in away section) threw lot of white paper rolls, followed by a great pyro-show.
Capo of Delije told everybody to wait with the tifo. When Grobari was finish with their show Delije took up their choreo. Lot flags and a great banner in the midle, showing the city and supporters. This tifo was up for 10-15 minutes out in the match, with non stop singing. Partizan got a very early goal, but that didnt stop the show, everybody just gave a little bit extra and the atmosphere reached a new level.
Its hard for me to say how the atmosphere from Grobari was, as I was standing among lot of supporters singing for Zvezda. But I did hear them and see them. Really nice when the whole away section jumped together, took up their hands and clapped together. Delije was also very good, non stop singing and fantastic to see when the whole curva (12 000 supporters?) started to jump together.

Partizan (Grobari):

Crvena Zvezda (Delije):

Half time:
1-1 to half time. Not sure how the match had been as I only looked at the supporters. Group of Russians from Spartak Moscov (?), friends of Delje, was standing on the other side of the curva, hopefully they were impressed too. During half time both groups kept chanting, mostly against each others.

Second half:
What can I say? Match started up again and both groups just continued singing. Partizan scored and went up in the lead with 2-1. Right before the goal they prepared a choreo, so after some pyro was lighted during their celebration, they showed their choreo. Im not sure what this tifo was suppose to be, maybe some lads from Partizan can explain in our forum. But I think they failed on this one.

Bit after goal Grobari started to light up seats and stuff in their section. Most likely they wanted revenge after Delije did the same at their stadium during last derby, which ended with match cancelled. It felt a bit wrong to do this now, why take the risk to end the match when you lead against your worst enemie? Fire department tryed to stop the fire. Lot of seats was threw on them, but after a while they got control on everything and the match could start again after a few minutes break. The riot squad also came out during this action, and found their place infront of both groups.

Zvezda never managed to score more then one goal this match, and it ended with 2-1 to Partizan. But the supporters didnt stop singing. Grobari celebrated with their players, and Delije did their best to sing louader then Grobari even after the match.
Lot of banners from both groups was showed during this match, visit out forum to see them and to get them translated.

Riot from Grobari:

Im really not sure who made the best atmosphere this match, think I have to stay on the longside to jugde that. One thing missed for this derby, cops managed to take lot of pyro from Delije before the match, so they only lighted a few flares, strobos and bangers, not as much as they use to.

Click on these two movies to get a realistic view of the atmosphere from the two groups:

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