Bombs were dropped on Belgrade and former Yugoslavia for two weeks already. Air raid sirens were active several times a day but on 7th of April it was Partizan and AEK fans that were more vocal than the sirens, bombers and bombs themselves.
Supporters of the two clubs showed defiance and unity of two fraternal nations, demonstrating football and sport are above all else.
Visitors from Athens arrived to Belgrade via Budapest, greeted by thousand of Partizan fans outside Humska Rd. ground. AEK representatives brought humanitarian aid, medicine and clothes, while together with FK Partizan management they planted olive tree as a sign of piece and eternal friendship of the two clubs.
Black-and-whites and yellow-blacks had target signs on their shirts – a symbol of resistance in those days, while both teams came out of the tunnel with a banner “NATO stop the war, stop the bombing”. The game itself started after the minute of silence for all the people who died in NATO air attacks at that point.
Match was attended by approx 15 thousand fans and it lasted 60 minutes as both sets of supporters entered the field to do an lap of honour – a setting for memento and pride of Partizan and AEK, Serbia and Greece.
Partizan was coached by Ljubisa Tumbakovic who later took over AEK coaching post, while visitors had Oleg Blochin by the dugout.
Partizan players on the day:
Nikola Damjanac, Vuk Rasovic, Branko Savic, Milan Stojanoski, Aleksandar Stanojevic, Aleksandar Vukovic, Vladimir Ivic, Sasa Ilic, Djordje Tomic, Nenad Bjekovic Jr., Mateja Kezman, Marjan Gerasimovski, Igor Duljaj, Ivica Iliev, Darko Tesovic, Zoltan Sabo, Ljubisa Rankovic and Goran Obradovic.
AEK Athens line-up:
Atmatsidis, MIchailidis, Kurkunas, Kopitsis, Kostenoglou, Babunski, Milovanovic, Savevski, Kasapis, Maladenis, Kalitzakis, Zouboulis, Nikolaidis.
