Date: Thursday, 26 February 2026
Location: Partizan Stadium
Under the floodlights of Belgrade, the noise wasn't sound—it was shape. Thick. Weighty. Alive. Smoke drifted down from the north stand like low fog, backlit by red flares and angry orange. Everything felt heavier. The shirts. The breath. Even the grass.
Bradford stepped into it as one.
White kits, heads up, no gestures. Just movement. Controlled. Like they'd rehearsed walking into fire.
Costa led the line, jaw tight. Behind him, Vélez scanned the stadium with slow eyes—reading not the crowd, but the angles behind the smoke. Lowe whispered something to Ethan at the halfway line. Ethan didn't answer. Just nodded once.
The stadium pulsed.
Partizan's chants came like hammer strikes. Each one faster. Louder. The home fans banged on the hoardings as if to shake the pitch loose. Behind Cox's goal, a flare arced through the smoke like a comet, landing just beside the net with a dull thud.
