Well that was a game! A thriller in Brussels, Belgium where the only team from the Balkan region proceeding into the group stages of the Champions League won in penallties.
Partizan went into the game knowing that they had to score, but a first goal from Anderlecht would mean that their hopes of going into the group stages would be very little. But the magnificent Cleo scored the first goal in the 15th minute.

Second Half.

Partizan started the second half by scoring another goal, who scored you say? Cleo!

It was all going well for Partizan, where from the 53 minute, they were cruising into the group stages, but in the 64th minute, Anderlecht scored, and in the 71st they tied the game.

It was going into penallties….Where the Anderlecht boys missed 3 of them! By a mile high!

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The stadium in Belgrade was filled with supporters of the Serb club, with fans all over Serbia. The game started equal for each sides, the first half was a bit boring.

The second half started off with a goal from Gillet to put the Belgians 1-0 in the 53rd minute. But the Partizan players weren’t going to give up, the striker Cleo scored just after 5 minutes to make it 1-1.

It just got better for Partizan when Lecjaks scored an own goal in the 65th minute. The fans were celebrating all over the stadium, but just one minute after Juhasz scored making it 2-2.

Now Partizan will have work to do in Belgium, because they can’t concede a goal in Brussels and they have to score a goal, because of the goal away rule.

Partizan Belgrade is the only Serbian team left in the European competitions.

The national stadium of Albania, where the national team plays their home matches at, and some of the club teams play is not up to the UEFA level yet. The pitch doesn’t meet the criteria plus the inside facilities aren’t that good to hold European matches, where Albania will play their qualification matches (first match will be on 9th of September against Luxembourg).

Club teams that use the stadium include SK Tirana, Dinamo Tirana, Partizani Tirana.

In the letter it says that UEFA is willing to help solve the situation and make the stadium up to the level required, but he wants the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha to intervene and help.

Another stadium which Albania could play their matches at, is the Loro Borici stadium, located in north Albania (Shkoder) but the Albanian Football Association is waiting for the answer.

Now about the blog, you might see the name “Balkans” as the blog name, but don’t think its a country, its a region with different countries. Anyway, I will be posting news, opinions about the different leagues in the Balkan region. Exactly 4 leagues.

The Albanian Superliga, The Montenegrin first league, The First Macedonian Football League and the Serbian Superliga.

You might be asking, what do I know about the Balkan region, in terms of football…

Here are some players you might know, that are from the Balkan region.

Lorik Cana, started his football career at PSG in France, then transferred to French champions Marseille, and in 2009 moved to the Premier League team, Sunderland. Now he plays football in Galatasaray and has 43 caps for Albania and is the captain of the national team.

Mirko Vucinic is one of the best known Montenegrins footballers in the past years, first played for the FK Sutjeska Niksic in the Montenegro first league, and then moving into one of the best leagues in the world, Seria A, playing for Lecce and know he is playing for one of the best Italian teams, AS Roma.

Dejan Stankovic is the latest champions league winning player, the Serbian footballer just won the Seria A, the Italian Cup and the UEFA Champions League with Inter Milan. He hails from Belgrade and started playing professional football at Red Star Belgrade.

Nemanja Vidic is one of the most known footballers that came from the former Yugoslavia, playing for Red Star Belgrade he got noticed and got signed by Spartak Moscow and then made his dream move the one of the best club teams in Europe, Manchester United.
I hope you enjoyed reading my first blog, let’s hope you read my next ones