Eu Reds: Cibalia

As Cliftonville supporters count down to the team’s return to action, our mini series of continental anniversaries carries on to one of the most remarkable results in the Club’s history.

Today marks 11 years since the Reds shocked HNK Cibalia with a goalless draw in the baking heat of Croatia to secure their progress to the Third Qualifying Round of the Europa League.

Despite claiming a 1-0 win when the sides had locked horns in the first leg at Windsor Park seven days earlier, Cliftonville nevertheless arrived in Vinkovci derided by the local media, with one source now infamously referring to ‘a team of fishermen’ who were destined for humiliation at the hands of Cibalia’s full-time professionals.

As if the footballing challenge wasn’t menacing enough, the Reds also had to battle against soaring temperatures and even resorted to partially flooding their own changing room by blocking up the shower drainage in a futile attempt to keep cool both pre-match and at half-time.

That the 90 minutes that followed delivered no goals owed much to the magnificence of goalkeeper John Connolly, although the visitors – who had defender Mark Holland stretchered off early on – were not without chances of their own and could have enjoyed a more comfortable night’s work had either Liam Boyce or Mark Patterson been able to convert opportunities which fell their way.

The full-time celebrations among the travelling Red Army were in stark contrast to the fury exhibited by the vast swathes of home fans, who roundly booed and jeered their team while a small pocket in a corner of the imposing Stadion Cibalia toasted an incredible performance and result from the away side.

Cliftonville: Connolly, R Scannell, B Holland, Donaghy, M Holland, McMullan, C Scannell, Garrett, Caldwell, Boyce, Catney.
Subs: McKane, O’Hara (for M Holland), Smyth (for Caldwell), Patterson (for C Scannell), Burns.

While July 22 delivered that historic Europa League upset, today is also the anniversary of two defeats in the Champions League.

For it was on this day in 2014 that 10-man Cliftonville were beaten 2-0 by Debrecen in the Nagyerdei Stadion in Hungary in the second leg of a tie that had yielded no goals in the previous week’s encounter at Solitude.

Knowing that an away goal would put them in full control of the tie, the Reds found chances hard to come by but were very much in the running to make progress until they were hit with a double blow inside one minute at the start of the second-half.

Defender Jaimie McGovern was sent off for a foul on Dalibor Volas and no sooner had he left the pitch than Debrecen had broken the deadlock courtesy of Rene Mihelic’s free-kick.

Needing to score to remain in the contest, Cliftonville did what they could to take the game to their hosts and went close through substitute Jude Winchester before the Hungarians settled the issue when Ibrahima Sidibe found the net 11 minutes from time.

Cliftonville: Devlin, McGovern, R Scannell, Johnston, Flynn, Curran, Garrett, Donnelly, Seydak, Catney, Cosgrove.
Subs: Brown, McMullan, Smyth (for Cosgrove), Winchester (for Garrett), Murray, McGrandles, Caldwell (for Catney).

A full 23 years ago today, meanwhile, the Reds competed in Europe’s premier Club competition for the very first time.

Slovakian kingpins FC Kosice took a 22nd minute lead through Vladislav Zvara, who would soon double his side’s advantage ahead of Szilard Nemeth making it 3-0 with just 36 minutes on the clock.

The Reds pulled one back on the stroke of half-time when Gerry Flynn become our first (and, to date, only) goalscorer in the Champions League with a drive that goalkeeper Miroslav Seman could only palm into the net.

What little hope the hosts had of staging an unlikely comeback were snuffed out when Ruslan Lubarskiy put Kosice 4-1 ahead on 65 minutes, with Martin Prohaszka completing the night’s scoring ahead of Jody Tolan missing the target with what was Cliftonville’s first ever penalty on the continental stage.

Cliftonville: Reece, Small, Flynn, Tabb, McCallion, Sliney, T McCann, Collins, Tolan, M McCann, Donnelly.
Subs: Kerr (for Flynn), McDonagh (for Collins).