Maribor pretend to choke and Koper and Triglav find form from somewhere

Correction: Well, I managed to make a pig’s ear of when the fixtures are going to be taking place, thanks largely in part to being foolish enough to believe what the Prva Liga put on their website. The fact is, the rest of the fixtures aren’t all on Saturday, in fact they’re all over the shop. So that’s me told.

There’ve been another three rounds that have bundled past since the last post. With the title within stroking distance, Maribor managed to throw points away left, right and centre. Round 27 saw three draws as only Mura 05 and Olimpija managed to chalk up wins in the pursuit of second place:

Round 27:

Luka Koper 2:2 Maribor

Gorica 1:1 Triglav

Celje 1:3 Mura 05

Nafta 1:1 Rudar

Olimpija 2:0 Domžale

Olimpija’s win over Domžale was a pretty workmanlike effort, they huffed and puffed and managed to wrap the game up, but no one manages to put points on the board with the ease that the Viola seem to manage. This is something that someone needs to work out how to do next season, and Olimpija seem to be the most likely in terms of resources and raw potential.  Maribor’s draw away to Koper could have had some significance if the season was still in its spring, but there’s too much daylight now, dead-rubbers aplenty are on the way for Maribor.  It wasn’t too shocking in round 28 when Gorica repeated the trick that Koper had pulled off, and managed to stop Maribor scoring.

Round 28:

Luka Koper 3:1 Mura 05

Gorica 0:0 Maribor

Domžale 1:1 Rudar

Celje 1:2 Olimpija

Nafta 1:2 Triglav

The highlights of this round were away from the top two. It’s great to see Triglav taking four points from two matches. Their win over Nafta kept them in touch and means that the automatic relegation spot is nowhere near being a foregone conclusion. It’s also very interesting to see that Koper have thrown themselves back into contention for the European spots. The club from the coast have been an impotent force for much of this season, but they’ve been putting some good results together to find themselves up in fourth place after their surprise win away at Olimpija in round 29:

Round 29:

Maribor 6:0 Nafta

Celje 0:2 Domžale

Triglav 1:5 Rudar

Mura 0:1 Gorica

Olimpija 0:1 Koper

After my opening contrition, round 30’s matches do all take place on a Saturday, this Saturday, in fact. The tie of the round should be the second versus third encounter between Gorica and Olimpija, but I have a feeling that Koper’s clash with Celje and Nafta’s with Mura might be where the entertainment is to be found.

Round 30 (all times CET)

Saturday 14^th April, 2012

Luka Koper v. Celje (17:00)

Rudar v. Maribor (18:00)

Nafta v. Mura 05 (18:00)

Domžale v. Triglav (20:00)

Gorica v. Olimpija (20:00)

Due to a trip to see Laibach at the Tate Modern with my slovenka, I’ll not be watching any of the games live, but it’s kind of tenuously related enough to feel like a reasonable excuse.

Position	Team	Played	Points
1.	Maribor	29	66
2.	Olimpija Ljubljana	29	49
3.	Gorica	29	47
4.	Luka Koper	29	44
5.	Mura 05	29	44
6.	Rudar	29	39
7.	Domžale	29	36
8.	Celje	29	31
9.	Nafta	29	24
10.	Triglav Kranj	29	20

Triglav come out swinging and Olimpija get intimate with the back of the net…

So, spring has arrived (for the purposes of the Prva Liga), and an uneventful transfer window came and went.  Over the weekend we were back to business as usual: Maribor rolled into Kranj with an imperious and surely unassailable 12 point league carried over the winter. Time for a gentle run-out against bottom of the table Triglav – stretch the muscles out get a bit of scoring practice in, ready for their steam-rollering of the rest of the campaign.

Except Triglav Kranj had other ideas. Like a bear waking from hibernation a long way from a box of paracetamol, the boys at the bottom bared their teeth at the first bit of 2012 action. A pretty respectable crowd turned out at Kranj’s ‘modestly’ sized ground to see Anže Jelar open the scoring for the hosts just before the half hour. Jelar benefited from Nejc Potokar’s uncanny impression of a swing door in the Maribor defence that caused Jasmin Handanovič to spot the ball coming at him late, too late.

Žan Pelko performed a heart-in-mouth-highwire-spectacular in the Kranj goal, but he managed to prove that, even if it isn’t pretty, keeping the ball out of the net is all that matters when you’re the underdog.  Kranj were awake, alive in the spring sunshine, and if the first goal was a moment of cheek, the second was something special from Enis Đurkovič (about 1:09 here). Teams at the top of the table would do well to take note of this study into how to unlock the Maribor defence. No doubt if manager Darko Milanič gets his way it won’t happen again. Maribor managed to get a consolation goal long after the 90 minute mark passed, but they’re left to reflect on a game that they could, and should, have got something from.

Another team to fare better after the break were Olimpija, who showed no festive sluggishness at all when they destroyed Nafta in Prekmurje. Dare Vršič (who else) opened the floodgates from the penalty spot 8 minutes into the game. Nafta may have felt a little hard done by, the deep furrow carved outside the area by Saša Levačič’s clumsy tackle being pretty decent proof that a free-kick was probably the right shout.  Them’s the breaks; Levačič was shown red and Olimpija chalked a one on the board. The man of the day was surely Dejan Djermanovič who scored a hat-trick on his debut, a bright start for both him and Olimpija for the second half of the season, although, even with their loss, Maribor look too far ahead already. Olimpija may have to settle for second. Djermanovič has already scored one more goal for Olimpija than he did in 9 games for Litex Lovech in the first half of the season.

Gorica are the team with the most opportunity to pip Olimpija for the silver medal spot, although they suffered a shaky start to a Celje team they looked far ahead of for the first 30 minutes of the match. Comfortably ahead through Sandi Arčon after eight minutes, Gorica eventually lost their advantage to a 42^nd minute penalty. Celje managed to keep things under control and stifled Gorica to a 1:1 draw.

So, the first games after the winter-break turned out like this:

Rudar 1:2 Mura 05

Domžale 1:0 Luka Koper

Nafta 0:6 Olimpija

Gorica 1:1 Celje

Triglav 2:1 Maribor

 

This weekend’s fixtures (all times CET):

Saturday:

Celje v. Nafta (15:00)

Maribor v. Domžale (16:00)

Koper v. Gorica (18:00)

Sunday:

Mura 05 v. Triglav Kranj (15:00)

Olimpija v. Rudar Velenje (15:00)

Maribor hit Brum Note, and Round 13 of the Prva Liga…

The Europa League dished out another defeat to Maribor, who more than just turned up in their home tie against Birmingham City. For UK viewers, the highlights are here (it’s channel 5’s website, not sure if it’s international).  The Slovenian team had some good chances, especially in the first half, but it took some grade-A comedy goal-keeping to allow the Viola to get in front – Colin Doyle’s missed swipe at a backpass allowed Dalibor Volaš to tuck the ball in on the 29 minute mark. In the second half, however, Birmingham came out the stronger. Scottish midfielder Chris Burke levelled the scores with a nice finish in the 64^th minute, before Wade Elliot’s shot squirmed away from Handanovič’s grasp in the 78^th minute to cruelly deny Maribor what might have been a deserved draw. Although the general expectation is that this Europa League campaign is a good way of getting some experience and cash for the team, it’s surely a shame to have missed out on a hard fought point.

Two days later it was back to the Prva Liga. Koper climbed off the bottom thanks to a win over Domžale: Milan Osterc scoring coolly with a lob in the 8^th minute to open the scoring, followed by a goal for Adnan Aganovič on the 33^rd. Mitja Zatkovič’s freekick in the 66^th minute added a goal for Domžale’s account, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Domžale losing 2:1.

Maribor were back to winning ways following their rousing, but ultimately unsuccessful struggle against Birmingham (that match itself following a limp 2:0 defeat to Nafta last weekend), when Triglav Kranj rolled into town. After a goalless first half where both teams had decent chances, Maribor struck through a cinematic diving header starring Etien Velikonja’s bonce (1:29, here). The second goal, bundled in by Marcos Tavares on the 87^th minute was far less worthy of the red carpet.

Nafta carried on the good work from last weekend’s victory over Maribor when they held Olimpija 1:1 in Ljubljana. Roland Polareczki found space that shouldn’t have existed to plant a header from a corner in the 33^rd minute to put the visitors ahead. Not to be outdone, Dalibor Radujko made the most of a variation on that theme to draw the match level on the hour.

Gorica kept the pressure up on Olimpija in second place when they visited Celje. From the highlights it looks like it was one-way traffic until Celje managed to pop one away from a free kick via Togolese centre-back Serge Akakpo’s head on the 29^th minute. Despite the chances that Gorica had, Celje (despite losing Zoran Pavlovič for a second yellow card on the 80^th minute) held on to their lead as the 90^th minute came and went. Just before full time the team numbers were levelled when Miha Mevlja used his elbow in an extra-judicial manner not often seen in peacetime, his marching orders swiftly followed. By that point the match was setting itself up for a coup de grace of the most careless kind. With the warmth of the referee’s breath on his whistle to call time on the encounter, Celje giving the world a masterclass in what happens if your defenders don’t know what to do with loose balls. Twice. Goals in the 92^nd and 94^th minute marked the comeback and snatched the victory for Gorica. Spinning heads all round for the Celje players.

Decent chances were few and far between in the other tie of the round, which saw Mura and Rudar play out a scoreless draw.  Perhaps after two weeks of midweek fixtures on top of the weekend rounds the teams will be glad of the international break, which means just under a fortnight off for the Prva Liga.

The national team return to Euro 2012 qualifying with hopes of a play-off place very much in other people’s hands.  They will have to hope that Serbia lose at home to Italy on Friday before they host the Serbs, a match that they will also need to win.  Even if they do that, they will need to hope that Estonia lose away to Northern Ireland, before the Irish then lose to Italy. It’s a minefield, and one that Slovenia are unfortunately very unlikely to circumnavigate successfully. Time for crossed fingers and Faustian pacts.

Prva Liga, round 13. Ties played on the 2^nd and 3^rd of October:

Koper 2:1 Domžale

Maribor 2:0 Triglav

Celje 1:2 Gorica

Mura 0:0 Rudar

Olimpija 1:1 Nafta

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)…

Round 10 and the coming weekend’s action…

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 24^th:

Celje v. Domzale

Olimpija v. Koper

Sunday 25^th:

Triglav v. Rudar

Mura v. Gorica

Maribor v. Nafta

Maribor Flat in Flanders & the League at the Quarter Point

Maribor’s Europa League trip to Belgium saw them lose 2-0 to a Club Brugge side that never looked like giving anything away. Goals from Vadis Odjidja and Nabil Dirar settled the tie for the home side before a quarter of the match had been played. A robust tackle from Aleksander Rajčević saw the Maribor player dismissed in the 85^th minute, but in truth Maribor had rarely looked like getting anything from the match. As recently revealed skilled purveyors of knock-out football, the Viola must wish that the old format of the UEFA cup had been retained after the chastening night in Flanders. Five matches of the Group stage remain for them to prove something on this stage; don’t discount a surprise result or two on the way.

The ninth round, and the one quarter played mark of the Prva Liga was played over the weekend.  The returning Maribor side were held to a 2:2 draw with a Koper side seemingly setting up home in the lower reaches of the league table. Raised eyebrows all-round. Nafta’s ‘all-points must go’ summer sale continued as they were beaten at home by Rudar Velenje, leaving them languishing at the bottom and seemingly destined to give up their place as Prekmurje’s representatives to the resilient newcomers Mura.  Mura themselves took three points away to a Celje team that seems unable to ‘get their shizzle together’ this season. Celje drop to eighth, completing the triptych of failure.  Gorica and Triglav shared a goalless draw, while the televised match saw Olimpija beat Domžale 3:1 in the closest this league season will get to a proper derby.  The result sees Olimpija climb back to second, only three points behind Maribor.

Tonight sees Domžale host Rudar, and is televised on Šport TV in Slovenia at 20:00.

Tomorrow’s fixtures:

Celje v. Olimpija (TV 18:00)

Nafta v. Triglav (20:00)

Koper v. Mura (20:00)

Gorica v. Maribor (20:00)