Red Star end 26-year wait to advance in Europe
ByReuters
Updated 07/12/2017 at 22:37 GMT
Former European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade survived the winter break in European competition for the first time in 26 years after a 1-0 home win over Cologne on Thursday sent them into the Europa League knockout stages.
Red Star Belgrade's Slavoljub Srnic celebrates scoring their first goal with Branko Jovicic
Image credit: Reuters
Red Star, who won Europe's elite club competition in 1991 and reached the latter stages the following season, finished second in Group H behind Arsenal who eased to a 6-0 rout of Belarus champions BATE Borisov.
More than a quarter of a century of European failure which went hand-in-hand with Red Star's financial decay ended in front of a capacity 52,000 crowd in the Rajko Mitic stadium after forward Slavoljub Srnic struck a 22nd-minute winner.
Srnic beat Cologne keeper Timo Horn with a crisp shot from 10 metres after midfielder Nenad Krsticic released Milan Rodic with a defence-splitting pass and the left back squared it into the heart of the penalty box.
Roared on by their frenetic faithful on a cold evening, Red Star held on in the second half as the visitors piled on the pressure and the joyous home fans set off a plethora of fireworks after the final whistle.
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