Celje doesn’t let up, Damir Krznar picks up where Albert Riera left off: Štajerci deepen Domžale’s crisis with their tenth win
Photo: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida
The opening match of the 14th round of the national championship took place at the Z’dežele Stadium, Celje hosted Domžale and celebrated their tenth win of the season – it ended 3-1. Domžale, meanwhile, suffered their eighth defeat of the season and remain at the bottom of the Telemach First League standings. Celje increased their lead at the top to +7 with three more points at least until Saturday.
In the first half, we saw one-way traffic from the home team, who were constantly pressing the yellow team’s goal. Edmilson’s header attempt was blocked by the visiting defenders after Luka Bobičanec’ s pass from the corner, but a moment later the action developed and the Count took the lead. V 21. On the left side, Nino Milić received the ball and sent a cross in front of the Domžale goal, where Damjan Vuklišević was alone and only diverted the ball into the net. Celjani continued to press, but failed to increase their lead until the end of the half.
After the break, Celjani were determined to win, but in 66. In the first minute, Filip Stuparević was disappointed when, after a mistake by the home defence, he got the ball in the penalty area and scored from a very difficult position, following a very poor intervention by Matko Obradović, to level the game at 1-1.
The Countries went back on the attack immediately after the goal and were awarded a major penalty with less than 20 minutes to go in regulation after Lukas Hempt’s handball blocked the shot. The main referee, Božo Kondić, initially did not award an 11th-minute penalty, but changed his mind after watching the video and overturned his initial decision. The shot from the white dot was successfully taken by captain Denis Popović, but the visiting goalkeeper Gašper Tratnik came close to deflecting it. V 87. Domžale had another chance to equalise when young Luka Topalović found himself alone in the middle of the home penalty area, but this time it was Matko Obradović who made a great save in the Celje goal.
Just before the end of regulation time, Celjani scored another goal when Gregor Bajde, a substitute, was left alone in front of an empty net after a pass from Popović. The goal was initially disallowed for offside, but after reviewing the footage, everything was found to be regular. The same pair tried in the referee’s allowance, but Bajde shot too high.
The Telemach First League will continue tomorrow, with a match between Koper and Bravo at the Bonifika Arena, and in the evening Maribor and Rogazka will clash at the Ljudski vrt. Celjan will be away in Krško during the week, as will Domžale, who will be away at Roltek from Doba.
This text was automatically translated using AI.