The fans told what was the most visited match in the history of Belgorod football.
On September 9, 2001, at the central stadium of Belgorod, the local “Salyut-Energia” hosted the Samara “Wings of the Soviets” in the 1/16 final match of the Russian Cup. The duel caused an unprecedented excitement among the townspeople. With the official stadium capacity of 12,500 spectators, 15 thousand (!) People watched the battle of the two teams with their own eyes.
We learned how the cup match turned out from the Belgorod fans, who were lucky enough to attend a historic match for the city. According to Alexander Golozubov, that season he did not miss a single home game of his favorite team.
“At every match, the stadium was almost full. In the team, the striker under the second number, Alexander Sokolov, and the veteran Valery Masalitin, who returned to Belgorod, stood out. As soon as I found out about the match with Wings of the Soviets, my dream was to get a ticket for this game in order to see my native Salut with Sokolov and Masalitin against the legendary Spartak player Tikhonov, a bright Brazilian Angelo, ”said the interlocutor.
The 13-year-old boy came to the match with his father. They arrived at the stadium in advance, two and a half hours before the starting whistle, to take a seat with the best view of the field.
“Closer to the start of the match, people were sitting in all the aisles, all the rooftops overlooking the stadium were also filled with people.” – Alexander shared his memories.
In his wildest dreams, the fan hoped for the victory of Salyut.
“The game gave these dreams life, but at the end of the first half, Angelo brought Samarans ahead. “Salyut” had a moment, but the assistant referee determined the position “offside”. At the end of the game, Lakic canceled out all the efforts of the hosts – 0: 2. This match is my most vivid football memory, although I have attended dozens of European and World Championships, the Champions League, ”summed up Alexander.
Currently, the football club Salyut Belgorod plays in the second division and hopes to enter the sub-elite division, in which it has not played for almost 10 years. In the Russian Cup for 20 years, Belgorodians have brought the Premier League teams more than once, but they managed to overcome the stage of 1/16 finals only once – in the fall of 2013, the Salutovites left behind the Moscow Dynamo, headed by Alexander Kokorin. After a couple of months, the club ceased to exist, reviving under a different name.
.