Mirko Ivanić (foto: Uradni facebook profil kluba)
“We opened the game very poorly, and it ultimately cost us the match,” said one of Crvena zvezda’s best players following their narrow defeat to Benfica.
Crvena zvezda did not begin their Champions League campaign as planned, suffering a 2-1 defeat at home to Benfica in the first round. The visitors from Lisbon took control early, scoring twice in the first 30 minutes, leaving the Serbian champions struggling to find their footing. As the match wore on, Vladan Milojević’s team began to play better, managing to score late but falling short of securing a draw in front of their home fans.
After the match, Mirko Ivanić reflected on the costly poor start and how mistakes at this level are unforgivable.
"Our biggest fear was coming out of this match saying we could have done more. We talked about entering the game well, but we had lapses in concentration. We opened the game very poorly, and that cost us the loss. It's frustrating because we showed in the second half that we don’t want to be just participants in the Champions League. We can’t allow ourselves to make the kind of mistakes we did in the first half. Too many individual errors, we weren’t positioned well. We entered the match unrecognizably, we’re not used to that," Ivanić began.
The creative midfielder acknowledged Benfica's quality but emphasized that Zvezda’s poor decisions were the key factor in the loss.
"We definitely could have done better. Benfica is an excellent team, no doubt, and no team will surprise us with their approach—this is the Champions League after all. But we negatively surprised ourselves by entering the game poorly. Before the match, we even encouraged each other because we saw we were a bit loose and tried to lift ourselves up. However, we need to figure out why this happened and move forward. We showed in the second half how we should play in the Champions League, and we must correct these things for the upcoming games."