The tenth round of games saw little change in the league table and few points being dished out, with 3 of the 5 midweek games ending in draws. Gorica hosted Maribor and both teams took a point each in a one-all draw. Both goals were scored in the second half, with Gorica’s by Vito Plut, making him current joint top-scorer with Olimpija’s Dare Vršič. Olimpija failed to take advantage of Maribor’s dropped points when they drew 0:0 away at Celje. With Koper also sharing a goalless draw with Mura, and Nafta finding a much needed win at Triglav Kranj, Koper, Celje and Nafta now find themselves sharing the bottom spot on 9 points each. The only game of the round that saw any real action was Rudar’s impressive 2:3 away win over Domžale. The result sees the Velenje club climb up to third, a single point behind Olimpija, who remain three points adrift of table-toppers Maribor.
With the lengthy winter break appearing far in the distance, the games are starting to pile up. This weekend is again followed by a round of midweek fixtures on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today sees the start of round 11, with Celje hoping that a demoralised Domžale team will be coming to visit the Arena Petrol, and Olimpija hosting a Koper team who are also trying to scrape their way off the bottom of the table. Tomorrow’s three matches will see Rudar travelling to Kranj with the intention of keeping the pressure on the top two, Mura welcoming Gorica in what I think could be the game of the round (it’ll be especially interesting to see if Plut can add to his goal tally), and Maribor will look to further strengthen their position at the top of the table when they play a Nafta team hoping to make it two wins out of two.
Prva Liga, round 11:
Saturday 24th:
Celje v. Domzale
Olimpija v. Koper
Sunday 25th:
Triglav v. Rudar
Mura v. Gorica
Maribor v. Nafta
Goli Gol (the Naked Goal) 