Watch: Referee narrowly escapes burning flare during Champions League match

New Delhi: Football hooligans are a different beast altogether. For the sake of their clubs, they can do almost anything. On Thursday, Spartak Moscow fans invaded Maribor ahead of Russian champions' UEFA Champions League match at Slovenia's second-largest city.

Once the Spartak Moscow-Maribor Group B match started, the visiting fans started throwing projectiles, including flares in the field. One flare almost hit the German referee Deniz Aytekin.

Here's the video:

38 years ago a Lazio fan was killed exactly in the way Spartak fans attempted to hit ref.
This is attempted murder pic.twitter.com/PSlBsCoVzM — Tancredi Palmeri (@tancredipalmeri) September 14, 2017

Maribor fans also tried to attack the visiting fans. Here's the video:

Maribor hooligans clashed with police after they try to attack Spartak Moscow fans 13/09/2017 pic.twitter.com/IyZBOTBq7i — Ultra Style (@ultra_style_) September 13, 2017

Later in the day, UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Spartak Moscow.

Spartak played out a 1-1 draw at the Slovenian champions.

The group has England's Liverpool and Spain's Sevilla. In another mtach, they also played a out a 2-2 draw.