After only six seasons playing top-division football, Russian club Rubin Kazan has made the big time.
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The tiny team, which was founded in 1958 and spent most of its history in the lower divisions, pulled off the biggest shock of this year's Champions League on Tuesday by beating defending European Cup champion Barcelona 2-1 in Spain.
"The inhuman stamina of the team was an inspiration," the Sovietsky Sport daily wrote Wednesday. "To play against Barca is to become Barca."
Aleksandr Ryazantsev and Gokdeniz Karadeniz scored a goal each at the Camp Nou, while the defense was able to hold Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta in check long enough for the team to record its first ever win in Europe's top club competition.
"I guess that Barca would have found it easier if we'd come out to play toe-to-toe with them, but it was always our intention to defend in numbers and hit on the break," Rubin forward Alejandro Dominguez said. "Now we can expect a huge welcome home, not just from Rubin fans but from all Russia because this was a historic win."
Once the victory was secured, the street party started in Kazan. The capital of the mostly Muslim Tatarstan region in the central part of European Russia is one of the country's largest cities with more than 1 million inhabitants.
"This is an incredible day for our football that will go down in history," Tatarstan tourism minister Marat Bariyev said.
Rubin pulled off the feat despite being outshot 24-3. The only one that managed to elude Rubin goalkeeper Sergei Ryzhikov was a shot from Zlatan Ibrahimovic early in the second half.
