When the Serbs came to Filbert Street.

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Stan Collymore came closest to winning it but managed to hit Zvezda ‘keeper Kocić from four-yards out. This was Red Star’s cue to take the score draw and get out and it finished 1-1.

City gaffer Taylor wasn’t impressed with Red Star’s antics: "I thought there was some play-acting by Red Star. One bloke went down as if he had been run over by a truck, and I lost the bet that he would be back on the field within 30 seconds - it was 15 seconds!''

Red Star manager Slavoljub Muslin bit back: “Although I was told that Taylor is a gentleman, there was nothing of the gentleman about him this evening.

"Throughout the game, he provoked me with words and gestures. It was the first time in my 20-year career as a head coach that I had heard such words”.

The political situation in Belgrade meant that City’s safety couldn’t be guaranteed, so the second leg was moved to Austrian capital Vienna. This change did City no favours – with a 3-1 defeat on the pitch and a barrage of stones and flares being fired into the away end off the pitch.
City’s 16-year exile from European football begins…

When Red Star Belgrade came to Filbert Street in 2000, It was like no other away end seen in Leicester.

Vocal, visual and bouncing, The Delije made a racket before and during the UEFA Cup first round tie at Filbert Street.

It was Leicester City’s second venture into Europe in three years. In 1997, Atletico Madrid cut City’s continental adventure short with a 4-1 aggregate defeat – this time, they fancied their chances.

Zvezda came to the East Midlands with one of the most talented squads in the competition and were European champions only nine years previously. But Red Star’s predominantly Yugoslav squad could have been forgiven for being slightly distracted due to the political uncertainty back home.

President Slobodan Milosevic was under pressure after accusations of electoral fraud and media censorship – and the game may have taken on an extra sinister layer following NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia only a year previously.

It was the Yugoslav champions’ fourth European tie of the season. In July, they beat Faroe Islanders Klaksvik and Georgian side Torpedo Kutaisi in the Champions League preliminary rounds.

Their quest for Europe’s elite competition was ended after an away-goals defeat to Dynamo Kiev – so it was Peter Taylor’s high-flying Leicester City that would be Zvezda’s next European test.

Dusan was 13-years old when he travelled to LE2 with his dad, brother and uncle. He remembers the day:

“It was actually only my first ever Zvezda game and I believe a lot of our fans spent the day at the Serbian community centre in Leicester”, he said.

“I always remember how the walk to Filbert Street was odd - the stadium was quite atmospheric if a bit small.

“Walking down the road you could already hear the Zvezda fans making noise outside”.

And make noise they did. “Fuck you Leicester, fuck you” could be heard down Burnmoor Street as the police kettled what is thought to have been mostly British-based Serbs, as Dusan explains:

“It’s difficult for Serbs to get visas even now – so it was even tougher in 2000 with everything going on.

“There were some that travelled but a lot of people in that away end would have been British based”.

Wherever they were from, they got into Filbert Street and made themselves known.

As the teams entered the pitch to a blue and white balloon and tickertape parade, the Delije lit flares in the East Stand. But with the roof being so low, the smoke had nowhere to go but onto the pitch and quickly filled that end of the ground.

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With the teams on the pitch, nobody could see City ‘keeper Tim Flowers from the Pop Side and remarkably, the Norwegian referee allowed the game to start.

After just 35 seconds, Slovenian-born Milenko Ačimovič thought he’d have a go and test just how well Flowers could see.

“I remember we could see very little of the Ačimovič goal”, Dusan remembers.

“The smoke from the flares was still so thick and it was covering the pitch.

“We could just about see the ball bounce in and out of the net - but it was only once we were home did we realise how far out it was!”

Zvezda kept pressing and wanted to kill the tie early doors.

Goran Drulić – who would score 27 goals through the season - went close to a second away goal.

But as the first half wore on, City grew in confidence.

Just before half-time, Muzzy Izzet’s short corner eventually found its way into the box and Gerry Taggart’s looping header beat Aleksandar Kocić to make it 1-1.

The second half was ill tempered, and Red Star were eventually reduced to ten-men when Stevo Glogovac picked up his second yellow card with 15 minutes remaining.