Red Star begins European run away at Larne

The buses with red and white scarves parked outside little Inver Park before noon, and the home fans watched them with a hint of disbelief. Larne, a small town on the northern coast of the island, is not used to hosting a club with a European trophy in its cabinet. Tonight at 9 p.m. Belgrade time, right here on a ground that barely holds a few thousand, Red Star’s European campaign begins.

The first leg of the Champions League second qualifying round carries a clear stake. The Belgrade side are outright favorites, and nobody in Larne is hiding it. But an away trip to the island, a thin bench at the start of the season, and an unfamiliar pitch can create a problem that does not exist on paper. That is why Dejan Stankovic named 24 players, a wide list that lets him rotate and answer every scenario. More than 150 Delije supporters made the trip to Northern Ireland so the team would not be alone even where nobody expected them.

Why is this first step the most important one?

Because a European season is not built in the knockout rounds, but right here, in July, on grounds where a favorite has to be serious from the first minute. Larne are the domestic champions, a club that grew over a decade from a second-tier side into champions of Northern Ireland, and this is the first time in their history they have reached the second qualifying round. For them, a match against Red Star is the peak of the year. For the visitors it is a trap to be cleared without drama, because the return leg on July 29 at the Rajko Mitic stadium has to be a formality, not a rescue mission.

The match airs on RTS 2, with a Romanian crew led by Rares Vidican in the middle. Red Star cannot afford to let an early home goal turn the evening into nerves, because the atmosphere on a small, full ground can carry a host further than quality allows. What is asked is simple: early control, a goal that settles things, and a return to Belgrade with a lead that makes the second leg routine.

What comes next for Red Star

The reward for going through is not small. The winner of this tie meets the better side from Vikingur vs Hapoel Beer Sheva in the third qualifying round, and that is already a sterner test on the road to the group stage. Red Star know well how much every point, every eliminated rival, and every clean run through qualifying is worth, both for the table and for the books, so no step can be taken for granted.

Stankovic spent the whole summer repeating that he is building the squad for a long season and that form at the start of the European campaign matters most. The first real answer to that question arrives tonight at Inver Park, where there is no room for calculation. If the visitors do the job the way a favorite should, the return leg at Marakana will be only a confirmation.

Do you believe Red Star will settle the Larne tie tonight, or will July 29 still leave us with an open question?