Thursday brought Olimpia’s last home European game of the season, Saturday the draw for the European Championship groups, and Sunday the second eternal Premier League club derby. According to him, they are more satisfied in Maribor. They talked about all of this in the podcast Žoga je radvodla.
Slovenia will play in Group C together with Denmark, Serbia and England at the European Championship in Germany this summer. Slovenia will play matches against the favored national teams in Stuttgart, Munich and Cologne in this order. The group draw was followed by a radio journalist in the north of Germany on Saturday Luka Petrič.
“There are many posters and signs in Hamburg pointing to the Euro, but there is still half a year until then. There was a lot of peripheral activity at the draw, everything was well organized. But Hamburg is a big city, many people didn’t even know that the draw was taking place. What stood out the most at the draw was the collective sigh of the hall when the Netherlands fell into the group with France again. Spain, Italy and Croatia played together already in 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, and the Spaniards and Italians played in the final after promotion. Like Slovenia, the other national teams also found many parallels with previous competitions.”
In 2000, the Slovenian national team faced Serbia’s predecessor, ZR Yugoslavia, at the Euros, and in 2010, they also faced England at the World Cup. The Slovenians played with the Danish national team in the recently concluded qualifiers.
Lorenčič: We could surprise Serbia, at least historically“Generally accepted, we all wanted to play with someone new or the ones we’ve played with recently. Perhaps Slovenia’s advantage against Denmark will be that the match will be played on a neutral field. Denmark shines in Copenhagen, but in Stuttgart the Slovenian fans may make the difference. The Danes did not convince me in Stožice, and the first match in the championship is always extremely important,” said this time’s guest, journalist and creator of the Ofsajd podcast, Jaša Lorenčič and added about Slovenia’s chances in this group: “A realistic goal is a point, two or three. They could surprise Serbia, at least historically speaking. I think that every point will be valuable and that we will remember every goal.”
Pepevnik: The schedule is favorable“I think the schedule is good for the group,” a radio reporter thinks about Slovenia’s schedule in Group C Jože Pepevnik. “First, the match against Denmark, with whom Slovenia played recently and proved in Stožice that it can compete with them. Then the second match against Serbia, probably the key to a possible breakthrough to the continuation of the competition. Munich is the closest to Slovenia and I think that regardless of the result of the first match against Denmark, it will be a great match with a great atmosphere, there will be a lot of Slovenian and Serbian fans. Assuming England will settle the issue of promotion by the last round, I think the schedule is favorable.”
The derby to Maribor after only a quarter of the matchOn the home courts, the 17th round was marked by the weather, which prevented the matches Rogaška – Aluminij and Celje – Koper, but the derby in which Maribor defeated Olimpija 3:1 stood out. The purple ones scored all three goals by the 22nd minute, and a distracted Olimpija was unable to come back after a bad start.
Janežič: Zeljković made a mistake with the starting eleven“Probably, Zeljković made a mistake with the starting eleven. In the middle were Agba and Florucz, footballers who are not registered for Europe, the team was probably quite tired after the European match. After the victory, Šimundža did not want to think that the victory in the derby was a harbinger of a better future,” the radio reporter thought about the derby Boštjan Janežič. “However, Zeljković poorly motivated his footballers or they thought that Maribor would not start so violently. The Ljubljana fans joked that the team was also afraid of the green, it had been a long time since they had played on such a good grass surface.”
Ante Šimundža defeated Zoran Zeljković for the first time in the fourth head-to-head coaching match, and the two coaches met for the first time on the benches of their biggest rivals. The experienced Maribor is slowly building the team and the game according to his ideas.
“Obviously, some shortcomings in the team can be overcome. Maribor started a similar attack against Celje, but in the end did not win any points. Far from the game being subordinated to Jan Repas, this time he scored two goals from distance. Maribor still has problems scoring goals, but Šimundža wants to fix the defense first, and it will be like this for a while at least,” says Jaša Lorenčič.
“However, it will be difficult for the violets to rely on goals outside the penalty area. In any case, Maribor still has a lot of work to do. However, a coach can turn many things around in a team, and Šimundža is now doing what he was quite famous for in the past.”
He hosted the latest episode of the football podcast Žoga je radvodla Aljaž Golčer.
Source: Rtvslo
