Sunday’s derby in Celje between the two best clubs of the previous season could significantly tip the scales in favor of the Counts in the fight for the championship title, but after Olimpija’s victory, the people of Ljubljana, Koper and Maribor can breathe easier. Again, most of the talk is about the judges.
Celje football players were very dissatisfied with the trial David Šmajeccaptain Denis Popović and Žan Karničnik did not stay in front of the microphone in the live broadcast between the halves and immediately after the end of the meeting.
Not only in Celjanov’s opinion, the 11-meter penalty was awarded too harshly after the counterattack from which it came Rui Pedro scored the only goal (0:1) in the 36th minute, they were disturbed by the referee’s criteria throughout the match, which, according to Karničnik, was “disastrous or one-sided”. Already last week, many were dissatisfied with the officiating in the match between Olimpija and Aluminij (0:0).
Coach Damir Krznar he refrained from commenting on the work of the judges and also somewhat chastised his protégés: “I think the boys lost focus. I tried to influence them from the edge of the pitch to focus only on ourselves and our performance. We shouldn’t be distracted by the things that happened around us. I understand the reaction of the team, but let This will be a school for us in advance to deal more with ourselves, because only this brings results.”
Krznar: In the first half, we lost the ball too quickly
The inefficient Celje did not even score a goal for the first time in the season, including six games in the qualification for the Conference League. In the second half, Damjan Vuklišević, Luka Bobičanec and Lovro Bizjak had the best chances in front of more than 3,000 spectators, but Denis Pintol, who showed a very reliable performance at the gates of Olimpija, did not let them be defeated. He has yet to concede a goal in four league games.
“In the first half, we were too nervous, not without desire, but on the contrary – with excessive desire. We were in a hurry in the attack, so we also lost the ball too quickly and created empty space behind us. In the second half, we completely dominated and tried to do everything, to score. I got what I wanted from the boys in the second half: a lot of opportunities, desire and ideas. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t go into the goal.” said Krznar.
“The defeat hurts because we didn’t win the three points and allowed our direct rival to get close to us,” he added about the fact that Olimpija reduced the gap to only five points.
Despite the defeat, Popović also tried to find positive lessons: “I’m glad that the boys were disappointed after the match because of the result, but not because of the approach. In football, the better doesn’t always win. I still think we’re better than Olimpija and we’ll prove it in the next matches.”
Zeljković: I hear that we are not in shape, but we still won
Defensively self-sacrificing and well-organized Olimpija, which was visited by the Green Dragons fan group during training during the week, after Rogaška and Domžale (both 0:2) won for the third time in a row away from home without conceding a goal.
On August 27, the people of Ljubljana lost 2:4 against Celje in Stožice, and they also scored four goals against Aluminij and Bravo. In recent weeks, the defense has been more solid.
Captain Timi Max Elšnik was on the pitch for the last 20 minutes with a hamstring injury, while Agustin Doffo was absent due to bookings, so the 20-year-old Nigerian got another chance Peter Agba.
“Very important three points. We were well aware of where we were coming from. I expected a little more energy from the boys and we got that. But we are aware of the way we won. We know we can and must do better. But I’m happy that I hear that we are not in shape, but we still won. I don’t want to play the kind of football we played today, but this is a process and I believe that we will get to the point where the spectators will be satisfied. That we will play more attacking and also on that’s how they win,” said the coach Zoran Zeljkovićwhich this week has home challenges against Klaksvik (Thursday) and Mura (Sunday).
The expert from Ljubljana was looking forward to his second victory this season over Krznar, after he and Koper also won 0:1 in Maribor at the end of September.
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Soudani: We fight as brothers
Next Sunday, Krznar and Celje will visit his former club in Ljudské vrt. On Saturday, Maribor connected two consecutive league victories for the first time after the 4th round (starting the championship with three victories). The 19-year-old scored to celebrate in Domžale with 1:2 Marcel Lorber (with a real Eurogoal) and 35 years old Hilal Soudani.
“We fight as brothers, we give our all, so do I. Especially with the experience I have. I’m happy with the goal, this victory is very important. We showed our character and our quality. We deserved three points,” commented the Algerian veteran after the turn of events, who, following a nice pass from Marko Božić, shook the net after just over 70 seconds of the game.
After the opening round on July 23, when they purple they beat Kalcer Radomlje 0:4 on the same pitch, it was only their second away victory this season. Sven Šoštarič Karič’s big mistake in Domžal’s leading goal was not fatal.
Šimundža: We made many things difficult for Domžal
“I’m very satisfied with the positions we got into. There was a lot of running, a lot of dynamics, a lot of attacking from deep. We made a lot of things difficult for Domža. It wouldn’t be fair if we trailed after the first half. Even in the end, according to what was shown unfair if we didn’t win all three points,” the coach thought Ante Šimundža.
Dušan Kosić experienced the fifth defeat in the last six matches with Domžale, the third in a row: “The thing that bothers me the most is conceding a goal right at the beginning of the second half. Maribor played a good action, but we missed. Two shots on goal, two goals – it’s a little frustrating. Even if we look back at all the games, we get some Euro goals. We had to we will begin to achieve.”
Jošt Pišek he supplemented it: “I don’t think we deserved to lose today. We played a very good game. Unfortunately, we were late in scoring and were penalized. We are disappointed. We will continue to work hard and work hard, sooner or later good results will come.”
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Rogaška scored only once in five games
Apart from Olimpija, Koper remains the best away team, both “away” won 15 points each. They are on Saturday canaries, who haven’t lost in 11 matches and are only three points behind Celjani, crushed the resistance of last-placed Rogaška with 0:1. In the last five games, when they experienced five defeats, the Slatinians scored only one goal.
A returnee on Bonifika Enej Jelenič scored for the second time this year: “We prepared for a hard game, where we will have to run a lot and get you other balls. I have to praise the whole team because we really worked as we agreed. Everyone worked for the other.”
Hadžić on the substitution after 45 seconds: I don’t see anything controversial, let’s stick to the rules
After the unplayed match between the two teams raised a lot of dust at the end of August, which was registered with 3:0 for Primorje, the events in Rogaška Slatina will also be remembered for similar reasons.
Koper is a 17-year-old soccer player Luka Žavbijawho started the match solely because of the required quota of young players, was replaced after only 45 seconds of the game.
Coach Safet Hadžićwho won for the first time on the bench of Koprčani, explained for Val 202: “It was my idea. If we won, I made the right decision. We’ll see what happens in the next matches. I don’t see anything controversial, let’s stick to the rules.”
Coach of Rogaška Oskar Drobnewho played for Koper between 2005 and 2007, commented in a statement to Sportklub: “It’s an extra ridiculous rule that they adopted past all the coaches. No one asked anyone anything, we’ve been mentioning this for a long time. I’m very happy that Koper showed the Slovenian Football Association what this rule is. Hats off to Koper for this move .”
16th round
Friday at 5:30 p.m.: ALUMINUM – BRAVO
Saturday at 3:00 p.m.: KALCER RADOMLJE – ROGAŠKA
At 17.30: DILLER – DOMŽALE
Sunday at 3:00 p.m.: MARIBOR – CELJE
At 17.30: OLYMPIA – MURA
Scale
CELJE 14 10 2 2 31:12 32 KOPER 14 8 5 1 24:12 29 OLIMPIJA 14 8 3 3 29:19 27 MARIBOR 14 7 2 5 22:16 23 BRAVO 14 6 3 5 20:20 21 MURA 14 5 3 6 17:23 18 KALCER RADOMLJE 14 4 4 6 15:18 16 DOMŽALE 14 3 2 9 18:26 11 ALUMINIJ 14 3 2 9 15:23 11 ROGAŠKA 14 2 2 10 8:30 8
Source: Rtvslo
