Red Star, Hapoel Beer Sheva: Squad Fit for Szombathely
Dejan Stankovic says the whole squad is fit and Rade Krunic is ready to play. Red Star face Hapoel Beer Sheva on Tuesday at 19:30 in Szombathely, with the team flying to Graz on Monday.
The first question Dejan Stankovic got at the press conference ahead of Red Star’s match against Hapoel Beer Sheva had nothing to do with the lineup or kickoff time. It was about a player who will not take the field for either side on Tuesday.
That player is Kings Kangwa. The Zambian once wore the red and white, then finished last season in Israel as the league’s best player. Hapoel won the title with him and knocked out Vikingur, then lost him anyway: his contract with the club ended right after the return leg against the Icelanders, and he has since moved on to Panathinaikos. Stankovic would not guess how much his absence will hurt the opponent.
“That is for them to answer. He was the MVP, they have to see how they cope without him,” the Red Star coach said.
Everyone is fit, Krunic in the mix
The injury update took one sentence. “Everyone is fit and ready,” Stankovic said, and that includes Rade Krunic, the player who drew the most questions before the trip.
That readiness did not happen by accident. Red Star had their Super League fixture against Radnik postponed because of the qualifiers, and the coach defended the call without hedging.
“It mattered a lot to us, given the temperatures, the long trip, the artificial pitch. We have that joker to use, one in the qualifiers and one in the playoff, and we used it well. The heat affects a lot,” Stankovic said.
Translated to the calendar, that means the qualifying joker is now spent. Ahead of the August 11 return leg, Red Star no longer has that tool, so the rest of August has to be played out without moving any more Super League fixtures.
What does Stankovic see in Hapoel?
He sees a side that resembles his own in ambition and Vojvodina in the way it chases space. The analysis took days and boiled down to one word: transition.
“A demanding match, a good opponent that does not abandon its principles, just like us. We need strong motivation and belief, we believe in our quality and in getting the result we want. This is a team that wants to dominate, we want to impose our own rhythm, as we always do. They might even take too many risks for this kind of knockout format. We will see, they are well drilled, not overly rushed, but brave, we will try to stay focused, take away their transition and their fast play, and impose our rhythm. In some ways they are similar to Vojvodina, with quick transitions. They play with a lot of risk, they want to assert themselves, so we will look to win the ball back on their side of the pitch,” Stankovic said.
The same thought came back in shorter form when he talked about the risk the Israeli champions carry into the knockout stage: “Sometimes they take risks that are, for my taste, too much for this kind of competition.”
Graz, then Szombathely, then straight back
Hapoel are the nominal hosts, but they have no ground of their own to use. Because of the security situation, the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round is being played in Szombathely, in northern Hungary, at the Haladas stadium, on Tuesday, August 4, at 19:30. Gil Manzano will referee.
Red Star’s travel plan looks like this:
- flight to Graz on Monday
- an overnight stay in Austria, about 40 kilometers from the stadium
- return to Belgrade straight after the match
Stankovic added that he hopes the kickoff time will not change because of the state of emergency in Hungary. Asked whether he had a preference for the opponent, he answered directly.
“I was not hoping for anyone in particular, but logistically Hapoel Beer Sheva suited us better, since Hungary is closer,” he said.
July numbers and form at the end of preseason
The Red and Whites eliminated Larne 4-0 away and 5-0 at home. Hapoel had it tougher: a 1-2 loss in Reykjavik, then a 2-0 win in the return leg, for a 3-2 aggregate win over Vikingur.
Behind those results sits a month in which Red Star scored 17 goals in four competitive matches, according to the club’s own figures. The coach, though, is not looking at the goal tally but at running data, and there he is more cautious.
“We are certainly not at our best in late July and early August, but I am pleased with how we look,” Stankovic said, pointing to volume and sprint numbers as his benchmark.
Fans in Hungary, tickets already on sale
A neutral venue works in Red Star’s favor, and the coach does not hide it. The club has put tickets for the matches against Hapoel Beer Sheva and Novi Pazar on sale online, and Stankovic is counting on Szombathely not feeling like an away trip.
“Our fans are unmatched. They will turn out in large numbers,” he said.
The most concrete takeaway from all of this: Red Star head to Hungary without a single injury absence, with a rested squad, and with the calendar joker already used up. If they do not come away from Tuesday’s match with a lead, the August 11 return leg at the Rajko Mitic stadium will be played under far more pressure than anyone at the Marakana had planned for.
