Amid a congested fixture schedule, FC Copenhagen manager Bo Svensson opted for significant rotation in his lineup. Players such as Carrizo and Hunor Nemeth—who rarely feature for the team—were included in the starting eleven.
Meanwhile, Mohamed Elyounoussi remained on the bench, and the attacking line suffered from a lack of bite in his absence.
Aside from an impressive strike by Crvena Zvezda’s Yuta Nakayama that hit the underside of the crossbar, both teams struggled to create chances during the opening half-hour.
It took an absurd own goal to spark the action. A seemingly harmless cross from Felix Beijmo was intended to be cleared for a corner by Matej Gashtarov.
Instead, the Macedonian player sent the ball looping over his own goalkeeper, suddenly putting the visitors 1–0 ahead.
However, this did not rattle the home side. While clear-cut scoring opportunities remained scarce, Crvena Zvezda responded with a couple of sublime long-range strikes. First, Timi Elsnik curled the ball into the corner from the edge of the box to make it 1–1, and five minutes before the break, Vasilije Kostov blasted a long-range effort in off the crossbar.
Crvena Zvezda threatened with another long-range attempt early in the second half, but this time Diant Ramaj was there to tip the ball over the bar.
With 20 minutes remaining, the otherwise quiet loanee Carrizo pulled a moment of brilliance out of the bag, slotting home an equalizer with his left foot—to the great delight of the approximately 400 traveling FC Copenhagen fans.
In the very last minute, however, Thomas Delaney headed a perfect cross just wide, shortly after Red Star’s Stefan Gudelj had been shown a red card.
