EURO 2024 | 24 YEARS HAVE PASSED, AND AS IF IT WAS YESTERDAY, THE ONLY MEMBERS OF THE SERBIAN EXPEDITION IN GERMANY WHO WERE ON A PROFESSIONAL ASSIGNMENT IN BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS IN 2000

Following the trail of a photograph, along the paths of memory, with the motif of a beautiful anniversary.  An ordinary click of a camera, made at the right moment, gets its historical value.

The shot in front of the bus of our national team on Thursday after training session in Augsburg, which included Dragan Stojković, Goran Đorović and Ljubinko Drulović, took us exactly 24 years back in time. On June 13, 2000, in Charlerois, in the match of the 1st round of Group ‘C’ of the European Championship in Belgium and the Netherlands, the national teams of Yugoslavia and Slovenia met.

The stake was huge. Epilogue – one of the most dramatic and spectacular matches in the history of the final tournaments of the continental championship.

“The Slovenians were leading by 3:0 in the 57th minute. A classic knockdown. Miha was shown a red card and a serious disaster threatened. At one point, Boškov jumped off the bench and shouted: ‘come on Blue, what’s wrong with you?’ What’s wrong with us, we can’t connect. With ten players, we managed to score three goals and Jokan almost brought a complete turnaround in the last minute. Drulović came in and played a fantastic game, Juga as well. We completely resurrected in the second half” – recalls Dragan Stojković, who started the game with Slovenia on the bench, but after only half an hour of the game he had to enter the field of play instead of Dejan Stanković:

“Experts declared that match to be the best in the European Championship. Zahović later told me: ‘Master, when you entered, we completely froze’. I will never forget the scene with Boškov after the 2nd round match against Norway. We win by 1:0, they declare me the player of the match and the next day there is a press conference at the hotel ‘Ter Elst’. I didn’t feel like going, they say: ‘You have to, you won the MVP, the journalists want you and the coach’. The path from the hotel to the press room was about a hundred meters, we start, and Vujke hugs me and says: ‘I had no idea you were such a player.'”

Almost two and a half decades have passed, but the memories of Goran Đorović do not fade.

“I didn’t play against Slovenia because of an injury. I was nervous, I missed most of the preparations in Asia and Vujke made the decision not to put myself at risk at the start of the championship. It turned out that he was right, because I renewed my injury against Spain and left the game after only ten minutes. A fantastic generation that had the misfortune to perform in major competitions in the most difficult period for our country, and because of that, they paid the guild twice in the matches with the Netherlands.”

One of the key players of our national team and the revelation of the entire European Championship in 2000 was Ljubinko Drulović.

“It is an honour and a privilege for me to be officially named the best assistant of that championship.” I remember the scene after the victory against Norway, we get on the bus, and Jokan says: ‘Drula, thank you for taking us to the second round’. Vlada Jugović entered the locker room with ‘Gazetta delo sport’, which published that I was among the six best-rated players of the group stage of the championship” – says Drulović, for whom the match with Slovenia, along with the one against the Czech Republic in Prague, definitely marked his career:

“Miha was sent off, we were left with one less player, and at that moment spite arose.

” These are moments that are difficult to explain. Simply, each of us got double capacity out of ourselves and we reached a tie. Savo scored the first goal, after Peđa Mijatović’s pass I scored the second. I think that Slovenians fell psychologically then. Then I broke through from the right side, assisted Savo for 3:3 and that’s when the show started. Even Jokan had a chance for the fourth goal in the last minute. That’s the beauty of football. Even if you are numerically weaker, but united as a team, you can do a lot. You can do anything.”

24 years have passed. And it seems like it was yesterday. Piksi, Djora and Drula. Along with the trio of journalists (Nebojša Petrović, Mirko Vrbica and Marko Metlaš), the only members of the Serbian expedition in Germany who were also in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000 on a professional assignment. A small but select group.