It is clear that Osijek’s execution wasn’t satisfactory, so that defeat followed, sadly.

Zoran Zekic said his piece during the press conference. His and the spectators’ view of Osijek’s performance was the same. Osijek truly played the weakest match since season start and its consequence is a defeat, the 4th one in this Championship. This defeat wouldn’t have been worrisome if Osijek hadn’t underperformed for the n’th time, showing up weak, with a dulled edge – for the second time in the past few days, failing their coach at Kranjcevic street.

Chances Few and Far Between

At the start it seemed that Osijek will be more efficient than Tuesday’s match vs. Lokomotiva, but it quickly proved otherwise, as Osijek ended up being less-than-optimal on the field. In the first half, 2 serious chances occurred, Maric being in both, but those weren’t situations which would be worthy of the epithet “great”. The risk about which we wrote in the announcement stayed locked in the locker room, unused and unutilized.

Therefore, the opponents used the opportunity to prove themselves engaged and driven, which is understandable due to their disposition. They hadn’t rushed it for fear of opening up too much to a counter-attack, but instead focused on carefully and patiently executed offenses, looking for an opening.

Couldn’t make it to 40

We had hoped that we would see a better and sharper Osijek in the continuation of the match, but we didn’t get that. Skoric had a prospective situation, though, in which he could put his team in the lead, but everything looked too humble and overcautious and fearful. Rudes’ effort was in every sense of the word lacking. On the other hand, Kamenar and Budimir skillfully played our defense like a fiddle in the defining moment of the match, when we saw the only score.

After that event, the odd try during game breaks stayed fruitless, where the opposing team saw their player Kamenar hit the post, so that there were no complaints on Osijek’s side regarding the final score, which could’ve been worse. The series of 39 consecutive official matches in which Osijek scored has been stopped, so that the team went silent on the topic of not reaching the number 40.