Slaven Belupo arrives at Gradski Vrt and they’re quite relaxed in contrast to NK Osijek, who yearn for Saturday’s points.
This Friday, Zoran Zekic didn’t have the usual press conference because he immediately jumped to the topic of Slaven Belupo, following their lost duel against Hajduk in the Croatian Cup. That day he accentuated that the coming match will be a new trial for his team, especially considering the notion that points matter more to NK Osijek than to Slaven, primarily in order to raise morale in the locker room and among the fans.
I really have nothing to hide when I say that losing to Hajduk wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, in fact, it was disastrous and painful. Precisely because of that reason, we must psychologically prepare for the fight against Koprivnica’s team, additionally, we need to bring our tactics game to the highest level because the match will be demanding. Irrespective of our recent dissatisfactory results, I think that we play good when push comes to shove. However, every time we play anew, we err greatly, but we also put in work to bury the ball in the enemy’s net. We will try to stabilize our play for Saturday in order to earn those 3 pts. The pressure will be huge, but we have to go on the pitch with a calm and collected mindset, having a clear intent to make every second of the given 90 minutes count.
Thirty-odd matches in 5 months
One can see the fatigue in Osijek’s player’s faces before the beginning of a hard half-season, which they began playing at the end of June…
We aren’t at the level we want to be energy-wise, but it isn’t realistic to expect that one stays maximally efficient during the whole half-season. This will be our thirtieth match in the past 5-month period, which none of our players ever experienced in their careers. It all leaves a mark on the players. I know that no one cares, but I have to take these kinds of things into account, together with my coworkers, picking the most prepared players for the game.
Osijek’s coach added something regarding Osijek’s opponent:
They (Slaven Belupo) will surely come to Osijek in a mellow mood. They have a new coach who had changed their playstyle, so that they are better now in their backline, which makes things hairy. We will have to be cautious of their counter-attacks since their players tend to be quite the hindrance. Slaven Belupo is a demanding foe and everything they do in Osijek is good for them because they have no real motivator when compared to ours.
