League round up and Respite for Maribor with the return of the Europa League

As last season’s defending champions, Maribor have been enduring a rocky time in the league of late. Score draws against Koper and Gorica in the league had allowed Olimpija to close the gap on them to three points coming into last weekend. Round 11 saw Olimpija make light work of a Koper team that continue to be deeply unimpressive. Scrappy goals from defensive errors and an occasionally befuddled looking Igor Nenezič in Koper’s goal marked out the green dragon’s 3:1 win. In keeping with the day’s theme, poor defending on Olimpija’s part allowed Damir Hadžič to score a laughably soft goal from a corner kick.  The annoyance of missing out on the clean sheet must be tempered somewhat by Dare Vršič adding another couple of goals to his tally to keep him firmly atop the scoring charts. A mere 600 supporters rattling around Stožice perhaps bodes badly for hopes of Olimpija managing to establish themselves as a real force in the Prva Liga, in the short-term at least.  The public of Ljubljana need to be convinced one way or another.

Perhaps the public of Celje have never been convinced. The Arena Petrol has many faults, but you’d hope that more than 500 would take an interest in the team from Slovenia’s third largest city. Especially as they seemed to have learnt how to win of late.  An impressive display against Domžale on Saturday saw Celje run out 3:0 winners. If the highlights are anything to go by, they look far more organised now, and the score could have been much higher. It wasn’t until the second half that they managed to open the scoring with Denis Popovič scoring a classic ‘did he really mean it?’ effort from downtown (2:00 here – Goli Gol would suggest that a clearer cross you’d be hard pushed to find, but it certainly looked good). It’s unsurprising that Celje felt they’d identified a weakness, and had an identical crack straight after.

Following on from the ever-suspiciously round attendance figures, a much healthier 4,500 turned up to the Ljudski Vrt to see table toppers Maribor come unstuck at a formerly hapless Nafta team, the visitors running out 2:0 winners. Opening goal scorer Da Silva is on loan at the Prekmurian team from Maribor, which can’t have gone down amazingly well with his full-time employers. The score line probably flatters Nafta, and Maribor had a fair number of decent chances, but the game was put to bed in the 87^th minute when Stepjan Caban planted a shot that Jasmin Handanovič really should have been equal to. For fans of speculative long range shots, the highlights are here. Elsewhere, Mura beat Goria 1:0 and Triglav and Rudar drew 0:0.

Maribor’s defeat meant that Olimpija joined them at the top of the table on 21 points, and with the Viola not taking part in the midweek fixtures due to their Europa League tie with Birmingham, Olimpija had the chance to take the top spot. Things didn’t exactly go to plan, however, in the 12^th round, when Gorica beat them 2:1 at home. I’m going to pick Stefan Smiljanič’s consolation (2:11 here), as my highlight, for the shear skill involved in heading that kind of goal. Gorica deserve credit nonetheless. Maribor have a game in hand over their closest challengers thanks to their European tie. That game is against Rudar, who can climb up to join Olimpija and Maribor at the top on 21 points if they beat the Viola in the rescheduled match.

Celje continued to turn things around, much in the way Koper continue to languish, when they beat the luckless Primorskan’s 2:1 away. Domžale beat a hard-working but ineffective Triglav Kranj 2:0, with the opening goal a bobbling free kick and the suspicion of off-side from the single camera view (never worth relying on, frankly).  The fourth match of the round saw Nafta and Mura share the spoils of the season’s second Prekmurian derby 2:2.

Tonight sees Maribor able to take their mind off their precarious position on top of the Prva Liga as they return to Europa League action. Their opponents this time are the blue side of Birmingham. Birmingham City also lost their opening Group H match, although they were facing last year’s beaten finalists Braga. With both sides licking their wounds, Maribor (if they’re fans of foolishness) might take some solace in the random connections between Birmingham and the Viola’s previous vanquished British opponents Rangers: recent manager Alex McLeish, winger Chris Burke and former captain Barry Ferguson each have strong links to both clubs. All of which, of course, will have nothing to do with the outcome tonight (unlike the fact that both Birmingham and Rangers play in a similar shade of blue)…

Out of Range!

So, I go on holiday for a few days and it all goes crazy. In the Ibrox return leg, Maribor held their nerve and held Rangers to a 1:1 draw, meaning that Maribor become the first Slovene team to appear in the group stage of the Europa League, following their slightly more impressive achievement of becoming the first Slovenians in the Champions’ League group stage back in 1999-2000. The result rounded off a dark day for Scottish football, with all of their teams dropping out of the Europa League before the group stage (although it seems highly likely Celtic will get a reprieve due the Swiss team Sion making up their own rules and choosing to field ineligible players, hard to see how it can’t result in a disqualification).

For their troubles the Viola have been placed in a group containing Belgians Club Brugge (cue Colin Farrell: “If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn’t, so it doesn’t.”), the Championship’s very own Birmingham City (cue colour pieces referencing the fact that England’s second city has more canals than Venice), and FC Braga (last year’s beaten finalists, and owners of Euro 2004’s most memorable stadium, carved into a quarry).  Hopefully there are some points in there, but Birmingham and Braga are likely to be especially tricky.

Back on the domestic front, Maribor demonstrated the classic European hangover, losing 4:1 to Olimpija in the season’s first ‘eternal derby’. Olimpija’s goals were shared around, with Lovrečič, Čadikovski and Radujko all hitting the back of the net in the first half, with Vršič adding to the tally and twisting the knife in the 85^th minute. Tavares managed the single reply for the visitors a quarter of an hour from time.  While Maribor are generally looking their usual impressive selves this season, Olimpija are starting to do a passable impression of title challengers, climbing now to just two points behind the Viola, who lead the table with 16 points. Having a strong Lujbljanan club could have a significant effect on the Prva Liga, with attendances at the recently built Stožice stadium taking some time to build up to decent numbers. The ever unreliable attendance figures for the game gave a total of 8,000, which if even vaguely accurate is certainly a good sign, although this match does represent one of the season’s more attractive matches given the rivalry between the teams.

Elsewhere in the seventh round of games, Celje lost out 2:1 to Triglav Kranj and had Denis Popović sent off in the 40^th minute, Koper’s dismal start to the season continued as they shared a 1:1 with Rudar Velenje, the same scoreline as seen at Mura when they hosted Domžale. Gorica took advantage of Domžale’s draw to leapfrog them into third place by beating Nafta Lendava 2:1 at home.

Attention now turns to the international game as Slovenia take on Estonia at home on Friday and Group G leaders and noisy neighbours Italy away next week in the hope of holding on to second place.

Purple patch at the Ljudski Vrt

Well, well, I only caught the first half, where Rangers seemed to have the game under control, but Maribor nonetheless managed to force their way to a 2-1 win courtesy of Macedonian Agim Ibraimi and substitute Etien Velikonja.  Not bad at all, although the surroundings of Ibrox are likely to be a world away from an impressively packed and noisy Ljudski Vrt.

Should be an interesting return next Thursday, though the away goal is likely to give Rangers some comfort.  Like most foreigners, the Slovenes tend to get pretty confused about the England/Scotland/Britain/UK arrangement, so they must have been even more confused by the sight of a Scottish team covering their seating area in Union flags…

Back to the league, this weekend sees the return of the Štajerskan derby as Maribor host Mura for the first time since the relaunched Mura have made it back to the top. Olimpija travel north to play Triglav in Kranj. Outside of Maribor, the pick of the matches may well be the clash between Domžale and Gorica, which is Šport TV’s televised match of the round.

The Viola’s European Tour continues…

Tonight sees Slovene champions Maribor host Scotland’s Rangers, in a vague Slovenia v. Britain match up. So far, the British media seem to think this won’t be any kind of test for the ‘Gers, but then, they probably thought that about Malmo in the Champions’ League, and it was an unceremonious defeat to the Swedes that has dumped the Glasgow club in the play-off round of the Europa League.

Maribor too have come into the competition from the Champions’ League, having cruised past Luxembourgers F91 Dudelange 5-1 on aggregate, before narrowly missing out to Maccabi Haifa in the third round.  The Slovene club don’t have the resources of the Scots, but they have a passionate supporter base who will be expecting to see their team perform, having reasserted themselves as the dominant force in Slovene football at the end of last season.

The Viola are led by the Brazilian attacker Marcos Tavares, who is unavailable for the first leg due to injury. The 27 year old was last season’s Prva Liga top-scorer, with a not entirely impressive 16 goals.  Another player of note, goalkeeper Jasmin Handanović is the older cousin of Slovenia’s stand out World Cup player, Samir, also a keeper.

Should be an interesting couple of matches. It seems reasonable that Rangers should ease through, but their opponents are athletic and well organised.