The Athens tragedy
Due to the defeat Red Star suffered from Panathinaikos in the semi-finals of 1971 European Champions' Cup, supporters of Red Star have bad memory of the Greek city of Athens.
After the great performance of Red Star, which won 4-1 in the first-leg match in Belgrade, hardly anyone presumed Panathinaikos would reach the finals. However, on the solid field of the small Athens stadium before some 30,000 passionate fans, there existed only one team - the host one.
The Greeks already took over the lead in the 9th minute, and half an hour before the end, the score was 3-0. The only thing worse than the score was the fact that the guest football players seamed completely helpless, powerless to score at least one goal which would take them to the finals.
The Yugoslav public experienced the Athens defeat as a real sport tragedy, for the Red Star players were thought to have enough quality to reach the very top of the European football. Football fans searched for reasons of the Athens disaster for long: some blamed the referee, others the poor quality of the field and irregular game conditions... Certain players of Red Star even doubted the hosts had put something in their food... It was not forgotten that Dragan Dzajic was not in the team of Red Star in the game with Panathinaikos. According to many, Dzajic was in his prime in this season, but because of his being sent off in the match of the quarterfinals played against Carl Zeiss from Eastern Germany, he could not have helped his teammates.
Previous: Dragan Dzajic - football legend
