European Spotlight: Villains from the weekend around Europe's football leagues

The fans of Red Star Belgrade and Partizan Belgrade

Saturday night saw the Eternal Derby – a full-blown affair in what is one of the fiercest rivalries in club football between the two Belgrade teams Red Star and Partizan.

Red Star, the home team, won the encounter 1-0, but it was before and after the game that the real action lay.

The fans of the home side had set off loud fireworks and lit dozens of flares before the start of the game. The away fans in a bid to outdo their opponents turned the stadium into a fatality zone as they set off a fire that soared high into the sky and soon turned into a monstrous flame that engulfed much of the concrete section and its ferocity was such that the referee had to halt the game for about 10 minutes as the fire crew got into the act.

The fire generated so much smoke that it threatened to nearly choke the spectators assembled inside.