Belgrade echoes to crackle of World Cup gunfire

Gunfire echoed around the deserted streets of Belgrade yesterday afternoon as nationalistic fervour again gripped the troubled Balkans.

It was 13 minutes into the game at Lens, France, and Stanovic had just put Yugoslavia one goal up against Germany, and some of those who possess firearms - there are many - came to their balconies in Belgrade to shoot their joy into the blue sky.

In the baking Yugoslav capital yesterday afternoon, windows and doors of apartments in the residential part of the old city were left wide open. Each individual roar of delight therefore escaped into the streets to combine to give the impression that the football stadium in Lens, France, was just around the corner.

To be one goal up against the powerful Germans was exciting enough. When Stojkovic put in the second the roar was even more delirious, and the gunfire more widespread and sustained.

Football is taken very seriously indeed in Yugoslavia. Since the break up of Yugoslavia the attractive football of the Yugoslavian team of the 1970s and some of the 1980s has not been emulated. What was one team is now five - Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia/Herzegovina and Yugoslavia (representing the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro).

Of these teams, Croatia has had the most significant impact on the international scene, a matter of immense pride to Croats and considerable resentment to Serbs.

In Pristina last week a group of Serb officials and journalists gathered in the government press centre to watch Croatia playing Jamaica. After a few minutes of making neutral-sounding comments to the international press that it should be "a good game" they settled into fierce partisanship on behalf of the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica.

Now there is the real prospect of two former Yugoslav teams, Croatia and Yugoslavia, qualifying for the second phase of the World Cup finals.

The two German goals had no effect on the streets, however. Groans of disappointment are quieter that shouts of delight. Cars began to run on the streets again within a minute of the final whistle. What had promised to be the first chance the citizens of Belgrade have had for a raucous hysterical celebration for a long time had sadly been snatched away.

But a draw against Germany is a very good result and they must still be considered likely to qualify from their group. If they do so, and win their next game, it is just conceivable they could meet Croatia in the quarter-finals. Long before the break-up of Yugoslavia, the rivalry between Serbia's Red Star Belgrade and Croatian teams such as Hadjuk Split and Dinamo Zagreb made Celtic-Rangers games seem like tea parties.

The economic difficulties of both states will at least reduce the prospect of crowd trouble in France, as most football fans cannot afford to travel there. But people would be advised to duck in off Belgrade's streets if Yugoslavia score, because bullets fired into the air have a habit of coming down again.