Osijek’s Next Opponents are Eager to Enclose Their Goal and make it Impenetrable, even Utilizing 9 Players to do Just That.
Zoran Zekic watched Sunday’s match live where Petrocub Hincesti played Dinamo Auto at their home stadium. Osijek’s coach caught a flight from Vienna to Kishinev, from which he travelled to Tiraspol, in whose suburb Osijek’s rival fought it out. The end result was 2-2 with Dinamo not capitalizing their 2-0 lead.
“It’s hard to summarize into words the real value of Petrocub. It’s a fact that they were losing quite hard for a good chunk of the match, but they stayed undefeated. To us, this is quite a peculiar playstyle that seems to confound their opponents. But, let me repeat what I’d said after the draw: This will not be a walk in the park” Zekic cautioned.
Phalanx Formation
Petrocub’s players don’t prefer to outplay their foes, due to their main tenant being to disallow the enemy to penetrate their phalanx-like defensive line.
“There are chunks where 9 players tail the ball in a seemingly phalanx-like formation of 2 lines in front of their penalty area. If they manage to get the ball, however, they immediately rush the opposing penalty area in order to score. I’m unsure as to how they’ll strategize against us because of their preferring younger players (2) in their league. Besides that, their prime striker Ambros wasn’t attending this time. I believe that they will bring in new faces by the time they face us and in order to bolster their ranks for Europe” Zekic commented.
