The local sports newspaper came out with the headline "Today or Never." Journalists urged players to defeat the Russians, assuring that this would open the way to the final part of EURO 2008. After a draw with the British, many were dizzy. Gus Hiddink added fuel to the fire of universal euphoria. The press not without pleasure quoted his words that a draw in Skopje would not be a disaster for Russia.
“Gus knows what to say to reporters,” Pavel Pogrebnyak grinned at this after the match.
... People began to flock to the stadium three hours before the game. Traders of nuts and seeds appeared near Gradsky (they don’t go to football here without them). It is interesting that the sellers were entirely young people, 25-30 years old. Either this is some kind of mafia, or in Macedonia real problems with employment.
There were a lot of police around the stadium, but she behaved quite liberally. It was not forbidden to drink beer, chants were not stopped. The guards kept rather sluggish. But, as it turned out, for the time being.
Long before the match, it became clear that there would be no full house. The ticket offices worked, but there were only a few people near them. The cashiers had plenty of tickets for any seats. For a chair in the central sector, they offered to spend 600 dinars.
About an hour and a half before the game, a group of fans appeared, chanting non-stop: “Ma-ke-do-ni-i!” It struck me that the oldest was 13 years old. The rest were even less.
At about the same time, the Russian team arrived at the stadium. Vitaliy Mutko was not on the bus, which in itself surprised. Players were not struck by concentration. The players listened to only two: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Dmitry Sychev. Roman Pavlyuchenko for a long time could not get a bag from the luggage compartment. She was pushed too deep. He himself refused to go after her and asked the fat administrator to do it.
Vitaliy Mutko appeared at the stadium only half an hour before the match. At first he walked around, greeted everyone, and then went to where the players changed clothes. Ivan Taranov did not stay in the company of the president of the RFU for a second.
- Where did you run? - asked him after him.
“Okay, what is there to listen to,” he waved.
After a minute and a half, other players went to warm up. The speech of the head of the football union was unprecedentedly short.
“What did you tell them?” - I had to ask Vitaliy Mutko.
He jokingly poked the curious in the stomach with his fist:
- Here are you from what edition?
- From "SPORT today."
- So I told them that “SPORT today” is the best publication in the world.
- This is the site.
- Let the site ...
An impressive official delegation has arrived from Russia. It included Vladimir Aleshin, Mikhail Vorontsov, Sergey Kapkov, Sergey Pryadkin. But Viktor Onopko never reached the stadium. Recall that he tried to enter Macedonia without a visa, citing the fact that he lives in Spain. However, the former Spartak’s border crossing was denied and sent back home. Probably, this incident put an end to Onopko’s possible work in the RFU.
... Meanwhile, Vitaly Mutko worriedly uttered into the void:
- I'm waiting for the Prime Minister.
Then the president went to the players who did not get into the application. He asked Dmitry Borodin where he was sitting.
“Over there, not far from the field,” the goalkeeper showed with his hand.
“And I — up there,” Mutko turned and pointed to the sky. And immediately clarified. - With the Prime Minister of Macedonia.
The players nodded respectfully.
“Would you like to clear a place for you there?”
Football players considered it best to keep silent.
“Okay, next time,” the source said, and went to the Prime Minister.
On the podium, the president of the RFU danced well to the perky Macedonian song. The prime minister was more cool. And not without surprise he looked at his neighbor. On the left hand from Mutko sat the Russian ambassador to Macedonia.
During the break, Vitaly Leontyevich chose to go down to the bar with a free drink and a semblance of a buffet table, rather than to the team’s locker room. Probably the score was fine with him. In a pause, he ordered his subordinates to write a protest if a record of the behavior of Russian fans is recorded in the protocol.
By then, our fans had already had a fight with the police. There were few Russians, about a hundred. Although 140 fans of the Russian team flew by charter only. Plus, some traveled on their own. Plus they were joined by the Serb allies.
Knowledgeable people claim that it was the Serbs who provoked the clash. They began to shout something to the Macedonians, which is why foreign objects flew into the Russian sector. Although, of course, not the Serbs, but ours made a Russian-language banner: "Kosovo - Serbian land." He was applauded on the one hand and indignant on the other. They say the first stone was thrown by the Macedonians. They were answered, and immediately local riot police (or commandos) stormed the guest sector.
Officers of the RFU rushed to the scene. They tried to calm the police. They shouted that special forces (or OMON) should be removed from the sector. Police said the Russians were to blame. They allegedly injured their colleague, who was taken to the hospital.
A second clash broke out five minutes before the end of the match. Russian fans lit fires and sparklers (how did they deliver them on the plane ?!), but they acted very correctly. They threw nothing onto the field, they began to extinguish the fire on their own. But the special forces (let it be special forces) again got into a fight. Five Russian fans were arrested. They were immediately taken to court. The police assured that no one would be held guilty, only fined. The issue price is a hundred dollars.
After the match, Vitaly Mutko did not rush down, but gave someone an interview directly by phone. He said something about the fields that the RFU is building. About clever Hiddink. And about the fact that he believed in victory.
Then he ran to the locker room. But he again failed to speak out properly. The players were already leaving for the bus.
“I was sitting on the podium with the Prime Minister of Macedonia,” the RFU President reminded everyone. - And we discussed the clashes between fans and the police. They here do not yet have our experience. They do not know that the police should not be allowed into the sector.
Now the prime minister will have such an invaluable experience.
Alexey SHEVCHENKO, Skopje