We finally came to that week, week when Serbian clubs will face England Premier League sides. First game is tomorrow between Tottenham and Red Star Belgrade in London. Few days after at Thursday Partizan Belgrade will face no less than Manchester United.
I just read announcement on Serbian you tube channel close to Partizan Belgrade ( called "Come to stadium"). Channel ran by journalist Zeljko Pantic pushed this game beyond sport level by quotation from Serbian national songs. He said literally "Udri vraga ne ostav' mu traga" (hit the devil leave no trace of him). LoL. After talking that Premier League is bad because of lot of money, that it should be like NBA compared to Europe League in basketball, but it is not, after saying it is "Indian competition" (?!) and that Spanish league is much stronger (?!) he called Partizan players to have faith in God, because against club who has devil in logo God is needed. Then he fired up that verse. LoL. Now you have part of picture what kind of non sport atmosphere portals and media here are making before this game. United is like some kind of enemy to hit not sport rival. Add to that standard anti-western narratives (They took away Kosovo from us, bombarded us, killed us, they are against us from beginning of time etc...) and you will have full picture.
Needlessly to say I completely disagree with these views (England Premier League is not Indian but very serious competition in contrast to Ling Long rigged super liga Serbia, Spanish league is not much better, we saw Barcelona at Anfield. I don't comment political views I am not to competent about that). He leave me no choice but to make comment like Indian saying "Indians will skin white men skulls" LoL.
Neither Partizan neither Manchester United had much success in last few games. Partizan lost 2 in a row against Vozdovac at home 1:2 and few days ago against Lucani 1:0 and is already out of title fight in rigged league called Ling Long. Coach Savo Milosevic said players are tired after playing for national squads and that he hasn't so many players to rotate them properly. United on other side lost against Newcastle and was close to win Liverpool, but late Lalana goal made it draw. United did not come with the strongest squad when played against AZ, they will probably do similar against Partizan.
Partizan played very good against Astana in Europa League and won comfortable 0:2, United made 1 chance against AZ away. My opinion is that game between full powered Partizan squad and young United which will start will be equal game with uncertain outcome. I am sure one other thing, if Harry Maguire plays he will get cultural shock when he see Umar Sadiq. He is funny, clumsy, missing chances, but at the end he scores a goal.
I agree with one point from this you tube channel. Partizan has nothing to lose. No one will say anything to them if they lose against United. With 4 points even with 2 loses against United they are still in the game for second place if they can beat Astana at home and AZ away. In case of win at home against United one leg will be already in next round of Europa League. Bibras Natko, Zoran Tosic, Takuma Asano, Umar Sadiq (Lazar Markovic, young teenager Stavanovic) can make some damage to United defense.
Danger of racist chanting by neo nazi groups
I am just afraid of one non sport thing and that is not losing this game, but behavior of fans. There is pattern and I see it repeating here. I already see rough tackle on some black player of United, then arguing between him and domestic player and fans chanting racist sheet and UEFA catapulting Partizan from European competition for 2 years. I really hope I'm wrong and that someone is talking to fan leaders (of all 3 divided fractions of them) while I type this explaining them what they must not do.
History
Few words about History for the end. This is not first time Partizan play against Manchester United. Long long time ago, once upon time in 1966 two clubs played in semi final of Cup Of Champions and Partizan won in Belgrade with 2:0, while United won in Manchester 1:0. Partizan went to final and lost against Real Madrid 2:1. Those were different times when Partizan was serious football club. Here you can see goals from that Belgrade game:
One thing is sure, it is going to be spectacle in front of sold out Partizan stadium, because big daddies from England Premier League, big developers of football are not coming here every day.
If you want to see "Come to stadium" and know Serbian here is link (around 30. minute):
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