Pestra sreda v Prvi ligi Telemach: Darjan Slavic will debut at the Stožice Stadium, Celje awaits Bravo, and the battle for survival in Domžale

Published on 10. April 2024 10. April 2024

Photo: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida

For the footballers in the Prva liga Telemach, there’s no rest. The 30th round of the national championship started on Tuesday when Maribor and Mura clashed in the empty Ljudski vrt. The Purple Ones overwhelmed their Prekmurje rival, ending with a 5-0 victory for the home team. This round will continue on Wednesday with three matches.

The opening match will kick off at 14:45, a rather inconvenient time for a working day. The leading Celje will host Bravo in the princely city, and Damir Krznar’s squad will try to take the next big step towards the title. “We must continue. Work, work, work. It will come. There are still seven games left, seven finals, seven games for the trophy, seven games where one is more important than the other. We remain calm. If we play each game with the energy we had against Mura, we have nothing to fear,” emphasized Damir Krznar, while Aleš Arnol admitted that the players were a bit down when it became clear that Europe was out of reach.

“When it became clear that fourth place wouldn’t be enough for Europe, there was a certain amount of disappointment that is also harder to shake off. But we have no choice. In this season, we had the longest negative streak of two defeats, just like now. We’ll try to climb out of the bad streak as quickly as possible and seek new points in the championship through good performances,” says Aleš Arnol, who will try to lead Bravo to only their second victory in nine attempts at Celje, where the Ljubljana team lost six times.

At 16:45, the pitch at the stadium near Kamniška Bistrica will come to life, Domžale will face one of the key battles for survival against Rogaška. The importance of the match for both opponents is evident from the standings: Domžale and Rogaška are separated by only three points. Domžale won their first game with Matej Podlogar on the bench against Bravo, while Rogaška lost to Olimpija last weekend, although they didn’t play badly. “Despite the win over Bravo, we are still in a situation we don’t want to be in. We need to continue with the game we showed in Ljubljana and collect points, as they lead us to safe places on the league table,” says Domžale striker Filip Stuparević, who scored from the midfield in Ljubljana.

The last Wednesday match will kick off at 18:45, as Olimpija and Radomlje will face off in Stožice. Olimpija coach Zoran Zeljković, despite the win over Rogaška, was not satisfied with his team’s performance, and before facing Radomlje, the dragon’s coach is probably wondering mainly how the millers will perform under the new boss. Darjan Slavic didn’t have much time to prepare; the former Mura youth coach agreed with Radomlje only on Monday afternoon. Radomlje desperately need points as they are currently last in the standings. But the question arises whether they can realistically expect them in an away game against the reigning Slovenian champions…