The 2007-08 European season is all but finished for FK Crvena Zvezda. After dropping their opening two games in the group stage of the UEFA Cup to Bayern Munich and Aris Thessaloniki, Zvezda lost their third consecutive match with a 0:1 scoreline against Bolton Wanderers in Belgrade on Thursday, December 6th.

The weakened Bolton was without seven of their standard first-team players, but it did not matter as the Wanderers showed why the English Premier League is considered one of the most physical national competitions in Europe. They played a tough-tackling style on the muddy Marakana pitch, cutting out Red Star's ground passing game and forcing the Belgrade giants to play the long ball.

For their part, Zvezda were certainly willing to take the fouls and their players blatantly dove on several occasions in order to secure free kicks near the Bolton penalty area. But none of it mattered as the 1991 European Champions missed a handfull of golden chances in the opening 25 minutes of the match. Zvezda were unlucky to allow a goal in the 45th minute when a series of mishaps in their box allowed Gavin McCann to pick out the bottom-right corner of the net.

Bolton shut up shop in the second half, committing numerous fouls in order to destroy the flow of the game, but the Serbian champions were also guilty of being over-zealous on several occasions. Although Zvezda pressed Bolton hard in the final 10 minutes, the final grade of their performance is a very poor one. Playing at home against a weakened opponent, Zvezda could not even muster one goal to secure the draw. That said, they are deservedly out of the UEFA Cup this season, and it is clear why they have been on the heels of city rivals Partizan in the Meridian Superliga. What is truly astonishing is that after a positive start - including two even games against Glasgow Rangers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League and a thrilling match against Bayern Munich to open the UEFA Cup group stage - Zvezda completely disappeared when it came time to face weaker opposition.