It should have been blue, but it was another nightmare night of European football at the stadium under Gorica.
Buducnost was defeated by Struga 4:3 in the second leg of the 2nd round of qualification for the Conference League (they lost 1:0 away from home last week), in a match in which, regardless of energy and desire, they confirmed the reality of our club football. Not only Europe is far, the region is also far. Too far and out of reach, for a long time.
The champion of North Macedonia is a much better team than the Montenegrin one, in every respect, it has an attacking tandem of Ibraimi - Radeski of high quality for this level of football, while the only positive impression of Budućnost is that it has a talent that could really be a real player - Vasilija Adžića, 17 -year-old with huge potential, who played only two minutes last week in Ohrid.
Buducnost started the match in the best way, with a goal from a corner, already in the seventh minute.
Gašević crossed into the box, and Miomir Đuričković reacted effectively and deftly, passing the ball with his heel for 1:0.
Home field, early lead - a better situation than this could hardly have been imagined.
The illusion, however, was short-lived. Already in the next three minutes, Struga showed that they are a more serious team. The visitors connected several good passes in the half of Budućnosti, won a corner and "copied" the goal for the equalizer. Mazrekaj from the right, and Marjan Radeski unforgivably scored with his head at the top to make it 1:1.
It was only the 11th minute, and the time until halftime would pass without a game on the bad, both visually and fundamentally, bad pitch of the stadium under Gorica.
Struga retreated to the block, and Buducnost had no chance in positional play, because that requires calmness, technique, stable passing, patience, movement without the ball, repetition - and this team did not have, and does not have, any of those characteristics for matches some kind of European level.
It was not difficult to conclude that the visitors were just waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of a mistake (one of many) in the host's attempt to possibly open the action and attack the space, use the speed of the attackers, as well as the rather slow central part of the rival's defense. They did that in the third minute of stoppage time in the first half, when Ibraimi launched Radeski, who is too fast and dexterous for the defenders of Budućnosti, and calm in the execution - 1:2.
It was at that moment that chaos broke out in the western stand, when the fans in the far end of the box noticed a young man dressed in a (blue) Red Star jersey with the inscription Savićević and the number ten on the back.
A dozen of them attacked him, others intervened, and the police used force to calm the angry crowd and to safely evacuate the "intruder" and his companion.
And while the focus was on the stands, the talent of 17-year-old Vasilij Adžić shined, who, until then, gave the impression of the only midfielder with quality in his legs.
Adžić hit the top right corner from a perfect free kick from 25 meters and restored hope to his team for the continuation of the European journey.
In the first 15 minutes of the second half, Adžić was a dominant figure on the field, a player who makes a difference, and whose breaks are a real treasure for the team.
In the 54th minute after his cross, Đuričković headed the ball back in front of the goal, Vladan Adžić only managed to touch it in the box, and goalkeeper Ćoševski reacted - the dilemma remains whether it crossed the goal line. The first impression is that it is, but this situation would only be resolved by VAR, which is not available at this stage of the LK qualification.
Buducnost had good energy in that part of the match, which was extinguished in the 66th minute by the experienced striker Besart Ibraimi with a shot from about 20 meters past the weakly placed goalkeeper Pavličić - 2:3.
Soon the fourth arrived, Radeski completed the hat-trick, again after a combination with Ibraimi.
The fifth goal was hanging in the balance, and unexpectedly ten minutes before the end, the third came in Struga's net. It was created by Vasilije Adžić, and Petar Sekulović beat it precisely against the left post.
There was time, but not excitement and uncertainty, Struga, without any problems, defended the victory and scheduled duels with Esperanza from Luxembourg for placement in the playoffs of the Conference League.
Bonus video:
