Sporting from Lisbon was one of the very few clubs that got the opportunity to win the trophy of the UEFA Cup in their own stadium. Zebras from Lisbon eliminated the Dutch AZ from the semi-finals with a goal in the 120th minute and came to the last step to win the first European trophy in the history of this club after 41 years.
On the opposite side was CSKA from Moscow, which was trying to become the first Russian team to enter the list of winners of European trophy. Even in the former Soviet Union, the Cup of European Winners’ of Cups went to the Ukrainian Dynamo Kiev (twice) and Georgia’s Dinamo Tbilisi, but never a team from Russia.
The team of CSKA managed to eliminate Benfica, Partizan, Auxerre, and Parma and probably would not be considered as an outsider if the finals were played on a neutral field.
When the English referee Graham Poll gave a signal for the start of the finals, BH international player Elvir Rahimic was one of 22 players on the field.
He was born in Zivinice and changed several clubs before becoming “a soldier of CSKA” in 2001. He became a “defensive midfielder” in the ranks of the Moscow club, a player for special missions, tactical fouls, a player who had an immense trust of their coach Valery Gazzaev.
José Alvalade heated the match in the 28th minute when Rogerio scored for the lead of Sporting, but the Russians have not lost their head and continued playing. There was a great reversal very soon: Alexei Berezutski scored for 1: 1 after 57 minutes of the match, Zhirkov scored 10 minutes later for the lead of CSKA and Vagner Love set the final score 15 minutes before the end of the match.
CSKA won with the result 3: 1 and they became the first Russian club that won the European trophy, and Elvir Rahimic was the first and only Bosnian who won the UEFA Cup in the 37-year history of the competition (1972-2009).
(Source: Radiosarajevo.ba)
