FK Partizan review

By: j | August 13th, 2008

I trust after todays match no-one will ever underestimate the support of the Belgrade faithful for their club FK Partizan again. The home squad came out fast to the deafening support of their fans and after
Fenerbahçe narrowly escaped a ‘keeper blunder early, Veljko Paunović opened the scoring at the eleven-minute mark to give them a 1-0 lead on a beautiful header in which he got behind the defense. With nary a moment to spare, Miloš Bogunović scored the second goal for the Belgrade club three minutes later on some extremely sloppy clearing and this looked to be the start of a very long and painful evening. The onslaught continued with much of the possession in the Fenerbahçe end and it wasn’t till the later stages of the half that play started to level out.

Attacking points started to open up with Daniel Güiza in particular finding an open spot and he was close on a few efforts. As the first half wound down, Radosav Petrović fouled Selçuk Şahin in the penalty area and in a very gutsy call, the spot was pointed to. Alex converted on the penalty to cut the lead to 2-1 at the break and give Fenerbahçe a lifeline. Luis Aragonés continued to make a series of tactical adjustments in movement and at the fiftieth minute Daniel Güiza scored on textbook goal, controlling a header off a long volley, to his chest and then striking it into the back of the net while at top speed. After a great deal of midfield play Partizan nearly scored with roughly eight minutes left but it was for naught and the match concluded at a 2-2 draw. The two away goals will prove critical in advancing as Fenerbahçe returns to Şükrü Saracoğlu.

Fenerbahçe is a team to be reckoned with but they came out without recognizing the power of the home grounds, which is quite ironic. In matches such as these, tempo must be built up slowly with a cautionary word in advancing. Their pedigree of individuals and tactical work of Luis Aragonés won out in the long run but problems such as these must be cleared-up fast because this club has the ability to go deep in the Champions League.

FK PARTİZAN: Mladen Bozovic , Stevanovic , Dordevic , Paunovic , Lazic (Cadikovski MIN. 88), Bogunovic (Marinkovic MIN. 78), Petrovic (Maletic MIN. 72 ), Sikimic , Knezevic , Diarra , Obradovic

FENERBAHÇE: Volkan Demirel , Gökhan , Lugano , Edu , Roberto Carlos , Kazım (Burak MIN. 55), Selçuk , Alex , Uğur (Maldonado MIN. 84), Semih (Emre Belözoğlu MIN. 61), Güiza

GOALS: Paunovic (MIN. 11), Bogunovic (MIN. 14) (Partizan), Alex (MIN. 45 pen.), Guiza (MIN. 50) (Fenerbahçe)

YELLOW CARDS: Alex, Burak, Lugano (Fenerbahçe), Cadikovski (Partizan)
(all photos supplied from Fenerbahçe club web-site)