🇧🇦 The Crazy Story of FK Sarajevo vs Manchester United (1967-68). The Mountain Underdogs.
Today, we are used to seeing the same big teams dominate Europe, but back in the 1967-68 season, something crazy happened.
Imagine a version of the Champions League without VAR, without perfectly manicured pitches, and without private jets for every player. Welcome to wild and rough football of the 1960s.
Today, we are used to seeing the same big teams dominate Europe, but back in the 1967-68 season, something crazy happened. A team from the mountainous city of Sarajevo—then part of Yugoslavia, now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina—crashed the party.
This is the story of FK Sarajevo, the first-ever Bosnian club to play in the European Cup. It follows a group of student-athletes who went from winning their local league to facing the world-famous Manchester United. It was a journey that had everything: A nightmare trip through the mountains, a controversial "ghost goal," and a high-stakes rematch that turned so heated it ended with a fight in the stadium tunnel (video below 👇)
Grab your popcorn. This is a proper football history deep dive.
Part I: The new kids on the block
To understand how massive this was, you have to know a bit about the Yugoslav First League. Back then, it was one of the toughest leagues in the world. It was usually dominated by the “Big Four” clubs: Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, Red Star Belgrade, and Partizan Belgrade.
FK Sarajevo? They were considered a “modest” team. They weren’t supposed to win the title, so they were the underdogs. But the 1966-67 season changed everything. FK Sarajevo went on an incredible run and on Sunday, 2 July 1967, they smashed a team called Čelik (5-2) and officially won the league for the first time in their history.
The team made it happen
And every great team has a hero. For Sarajevo, it was a 20-year-old striker named Vahidin Musemić. He wasn’t just a footballer; he was also a philosophy student. While other players were focused solely on the game, he was studying big ideas and scoring big goals, not bad. He finished the season as the top scorer with 15 goals in 30 games. The newspapers loved him and gave him a brilliant nickname: “The Golden Shot”.
Alongside him was a mix of local legends. There was Mirsad Fazlagić, the captain and experienced defende , and Sreten Šiljkut, the playmaker who was the oldest guy in the team and jokingly called “Dad” by his teammates.
This team had had done the impossible, they became champions.
Next stop: The European Cup.
Part II: Mission Impossible for Manchester United
Sarajevo got through the first round of the cup easily, beating a team from Cyprus. But in the Second Round (the Last 16), the draw was brutal. They were paired against the English champions: Manchester United. This was the United of legends. We are talking about Bobby Charlton and George Best—players who are basically royalty in football history.
But here is the funny thing: Manchester United had no idea who FK Sarajevo were. There was no internet, no YouTube highlights, and no scouting apps.
United’s legendary manager, Matt Busby, was worried. He described Sarajevo as an “inaccessible mountain stronghold”. He was so concerned about the travel that he booked a special charter jet—something United hadn’t done for a long trip in nearly ten years- and decided to fly out early to spy on Sarajevo during a league match. He watched them play and… he wasn’t impressed at all. Sarajevo actually lost that game 1-0.
Busby told the British press:
“They played far under First Division level. They were slow and lacked inspiration.”
He basically thought it was going to be a walk in the park. But he was wrong.
Part III: The Siege of Sarajevo (First Leg)
Date: 15 November 1967 Venue: Koševo Stadium, Sarajevo
The Scene: 45,000 to 50,000 fans going absolutely wild.
The atmosphere was electric. The local fans used sirens and bells to make a deafening noise. But for the Sarajevo players, things went wrong almost immediately. In the 29th minute, Sarajevo’s winger Boško Prodanović got a serious knee injury.
Now, here is a rule that sounds crazy today:
Substitutes were not allowed in the European Cup back then. If a player got injured, you just had to play with one less person.
So, for more than an hour, Sarajevo had to play against the mighty Manchester United with only 10 men.
But, despite having fewer players, Sarajevo actually bagged a goal. In the 24th minute, the “Golden Shot” Musemić scored, and the stadium went crazy. But… the Italian referee waved it off, saying the ball hadn’t fully crossed the line. So the fans went nuts, just nuts.
Manchester United, finally realising this wasn’t going to be easy, decided to defend for their lives. The newspapers called it a “defensive barrier”. The Sarajevo defence, led by Fazlagić, was a brick wall. Even with 10 men, they stopped Best and Charlton from scoring.
Final Score: 0-0.
It became an heroic draw for the Bosnians.
Part IV: The Battle of Old Trafford (Second Leg)
Date: 29 November 1967 Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester
Attendance: Over 60,000 people.
Two weeks later, both teams met again in England, but Sarajevo was in trouble, their injured winger, Prodanović, was out for six months. His replacement was an 18-year-old economics student named Salih Delalić, who had barely played any professional games. The Sarajevo manager admitted their chances were slim, saying it was “90 to 1 against” them.
When the match started, Manchester United was fast. They wanted to finish the job early.
11th Minute: John Aston scores for United. 1-0.
The crowd expected it to finish quickly, but Sarajevo got tough. Really tough. They started tackling hard—”ruthless tackling” according to the English press. Sarajevo’s Fahrudin Prljača completely lost his cool and kicked George Best. The referee had no choice after this: Red Card for Fahrudin Prljača. So, once again, Sarajevo was playing with 10 men.
The United players were getting frustrated, but then scored.
65th Minute: The genius George Best scores for United. 2-0.
But this goal caused a massive argument. The Sarajevo players claimed the ball had gone out of play before it was crossed to Best. They surrounded the referee, furious, and things got ugly.
Under a situation like this most teams would have given up. They were 2-0 down, away from home, with a player sent off. But not this team, not FK Sarajevo.
88th Minute: The teenager Salih Delalić scored for Sarajevo 2-1.
It was too late to win the game, but it showed incredible spirit. They had fought the English champions all the way to the end.
The Tunnel Fight
Unfortunately the drama didn’t end at the final whistle. As the players walked off the pitch, it kicked off in the tunnel. The reports from the night say that the Sarajevo goalkeeper, Refik Muftić, was so angry about the second goal and the physical battle that he actually threw a punch at the United manager, Matt Busby.
Busby later tried to laugh it off, calling it a “wee skirmish” (a small fight), but the headlines the next day were shocking: “KEEPER THREW PUNCH AT UNITED BOSS”.
Part V: Why This Story Matters
Manchester United won the tie 2-1 in the end on aggregate. In fact, they went on to win the whole tournament that season, becoming the champions of Europe.
But FK Sarajevo left with their heads held high, because:
They made history: They were the first club from Bosnia to ever play on this stage.
They were tough: They played huge chunks of the tie with only 10 men and still gave United the hardest game of their lives.
They proved the doubters wrong: Matt Busby thought they weren’t good enough for the English First Division. By the end, he knew he had been in a real battle.
Here you have some club stats 👇
Sarajevo would eventually win the league again in 1985, but that first adventure in 1967 remains legendary. It was the time a group of students and locals came down from the mountains and went toe-to-toe with the giants of football.
