Ante Šimundža leads Maribor to victory over Rogaška and stresses: ‘As long as this is our reality, we will suffer in every match’
Photo: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida
Rogaška was once again a solid nut for Maribor, which was eventually crushed by the latter. In injury time, Erico Castro scored the winner for the home team in Ljudski vrt, which also put the Violistas’ coach in a good mood. But Ante Šimundža was blunt after the game and stressed that although he was happy with the victory, he was aware that Maribor still had a long way to go to reach the desired level.
“A victory well deserved. We are coming off a tough game in which we had a bad start. We had that initial carelessness and then that action when we got a goal from the third ball, which is very bad for competitiveness. But I liked the fact that we kept rising throughout the game. We dominated and scored late, but deservedly came out victorious,” said Ante Šimundža after the 2:1 victory, which also saw Jan Repas among the scorers.
The coach of the Styrian giant admitted that he was satisfied with the approach, but did not elaborate on the mistakes in the game.I am happy with the approach, the idea in the game, but often it was not realised. We had a lot of problems passing the ball, but this is our reality at the moment. Until we get to the mental level we want and get to the automatisms of the game, we will suffer in every game. However, we had 19 shots, 9 on target. We also had possession (65:35) and 11 corners. The dominance was noticeable. We’ve seen a real competitive duel, which develops character.”
Ante Šimundža also stressed that he was not looking for excuses, but was simply stating the facts. And he listed a few more: “We started with a blocked shot, and from that situation our game went into eclipse. It was annoying to see the defence react badly to the goal, as they should have kicked the ball away, but then we were happy to see the defence picking themselves up. And so is the whole team. We hit the crossbar, we didn’t leave anything for the opponent. Except for counter-attacks. Although they caused us some problems from these counter-attacks, as the visitors’ strikers kept the ball well, our defence was very composed and didn’t allow any more shots on goal. I expected a tough match. We had ideas, we rotated during the game with the players. But it was in 1. Not enough running and changing positions at half-time, we had too many loose balls. If you don’t have that, if you have to give it your all in a match, you’re in trouble. We are still asking questions. This is not an excuse, but a fact. We need to get to automatisms by December. If some matters are not present, the process must continue. We work, we encourage each other. But I am happy that, despite the mistakes, the boys want to do it and that is the right way to go.“
This text was automatically translated using AI.
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