Those who have visited the Red Star stadium, where Benfica will play, describe it as "the most hostile, intense and intimidating experience in football." It was hell on Earth, that stadium.
Benfica aims to ascend to heaven via a detour to hell in the Champions League.
Although the "warm" environment in Balkan stadiums is widely known, some who have visited Red Star, the site of Benfica's Champions League match this Thursday (5:45 pm, Sport TV), have spoken about the atmosphere there as something unique. Not only is the Rajko Mitić, often called Marakana, no longer what it once was, but it is also hellishly hot.
Benfica wants to go to hell and then soar to heaven in the Champions League.
There were firecrackers, smoke, torches, animosity toward the visitors, fights outside the stadium, noise during the night close to the hotel of the visiting team, and unceasing chanting during the match. The Red Star supporters are hardly a model of how to greet anyone, good or bad.
Benfica wants to go to hell and then soar to heaven in the Champions League.
However, there's more to Rajko Mitić than meets the eye. Benfica's players are in for roughly two minutes of a very unique type of torment before they even step onto the pitch and before the cameras capture them.
Benfica wants to go to hell and then soar to heaven in the Champions League.
The tunnel that leads to the pitch resembles the route that Hitler used to get to Wolfsschanze, or Wolf's Lair, during World War Two. Red Star tunnel, unchanged since 1963, is long and tight with a very low ceiling, worn white walls, metro-style lights, two imposing ancient iron gates, walls painted red with graffiti, and stairs that descend to a subterranean level before climbing back up to the pitch. The clamor of the home crowd reverberates as the players make the two-minute trek, creating a fairly cramped setting for them. Fans seated above the tunnel ceiling force the walls of the tunnel to tremble, according to those who witnessed it on the match day.
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