November 27, 2023
These diaries covered a match from Serbia when the 2019/20 season resumed after the Covid pandemic, and then prepared some reviews at the beginning of the 2020/21 season. Bet365 then stopped their live streams from Serbia making watching live matches in the UK impossible without a VPN. Happily though, they have resumed streaming matches from Serbia this season, and today was an opportunity to catch-up on the Superliga.
Today’s game saw a meeting between 11th and 9th in the table. There are 16 sides in the Superliga who play each other twice for a 30 game regular season. The league then splits with the top 8 forming a championship group, and the bottom 8 making up the relegation group.
Last season Vozdovac finished in 7th place, whilst Javor were 12th, two points clear of the relegation play-offs.
FK Javor-Matis Ivanjica
Javor are based in the town of Ivanjica, which is located 200km south of the capital Belgrade, a journey which takes just under 3 hours by road. The population of the town is around 30,000 and is surrounded by mountain ranges, one of which is Javor. Matis are the sponsors of the club. Home is the 3,000 capacity Javor stadium.
Javor were relegated at the end of the 2020/21 season but returned to the Superliga after just one season. They went into today’s game with a 5-2-7 record but their form at home had been good, with 4 wins and 2 losses.
Ghanian striker Ibrahim Tanko was their top scorer so far this season with three goals, and the most recognisable name in their side was probably Montenegrin centre-back Boris Kopitovic ( 26 caps ) who played for BATE Borisov between 2019 and 2021. Other foreign players in their squad included French defensive midfielder Boubacari Doucoure, Bosnia midfielder Todor Petrovic who has played in Kazakhstan for Atyrau and Vorskla Poltava in Ukraine, and ex-Hammarby forward Ivorian Bayere Loue.
22 year-old midfielder Radivoj Bosic has already had spells abroad with Swiss side FC Wil, Olympija Ljubljana and National in Madeira, right-back Dino Dolmagic had a short stay in Iceland with Breidablik, left-back Nemanja Miletic ( 2 caps ) had played for Partizan Belgrade as well as sides in Cyprus, Poland and Russia, and striker Petar Gigic has Partizan and Ujpest Dosza on his CV.
FK Vozdovac
Vozdovac are one of five sides from the capital Belgrade playing in the Superliga this season. Nicknamed the Dragons they are perhaps most well-known for their ground being located on the roof of a shopping centre. Unsurprisingly the 5,175 capacity ground is called the Shopping Center Stadium !
Vozdovac had a solid 4-6-4 record so far this season, but away from the shopping centre they were only 1-2-4. However, they did beat Crvena Zvesda ( Red Star Belgrade ) 3-2 at home back in August, the first time they had lost a Superliga league match since October 2021 !
The overseas players in their squad included Jamaican midfielder Junior Flemming ( 26 caps ) who is on loan from Toulouse, Peruvian forward Rodrigo Vilca who is on loan from Newcastle United and has also had a loan spell at Doncaster Rovers, midfielder Niksa Vujanovic is from Montenegro, and forward Danilo Teodorovic is Bosnian.
Midfielder Lazar Kojic had a short spell at Dutch side Fortuna Sittard and Borislav Burmaz was their top scorer on 7 goals.
Matchday Information
The weather at the 16.00 local time ( 15.00 UK time ) kick-off was a cold -1 degree with some light sleet falling. It was already dark and the floodlights were on.
Bet365 made Javor 6/4 favourites, with Vozdovac at 7/4 and the draw at 15/8. The two sides had already met earlier in the season, playing out a 0-0 draw in Belgrade.
Vozdovac were playing in their change kit of all yellow, whereas Javor were in all white.
Large amounts of snow were visible on the side of the pitch and also on the seats in the open stand behind one goal. The pitch had been cleared of snow.
The TV graphics were in Cyrillic script as were the names of the players and the club on the back of the Vozdovac shirts. However, the advertising on the front of their shirts was in Roman script as was the writing on the Javor shirts, and on all the advertising hoarding around the ground.
A handful of hardy home fans were freezing on the open terrace on the far side of the ground as were around 15 visiting supporters. When these diaries reported on a match at Javor in 2020 the match was supposed to be being played behind closed doors but five guys were able to watch the game from a balcony of a flat overlooking the other goal. Today, again there 5 people watching from the balcony.
Match Report
Vozdovac won a corner with less than two minutes played but it came to nothing, then Bosic flashed a low drive across the Vozdovac 6 yard box which no-one was able to get on the end of.
The first shot on goal arrived in the 10th minute. Gigic made a good run down the right and got to the by-line and his pull-back found Tanko, whose shot from close to the penalty spot was blocked. Tanko latched onto the loose ball and teed up Luka Gojkovic, but his curling effort was at keeper Katic who made a routine save.
Three minutes later Bosic delivered a fine left-footed cross from right wing which was met by Gogic, but his header from 12 yards bounced past the diving keeper but also narrowly wide of the post.
The home side continued to have the better of the game and a surging run from the half-way line by Gojkovic enabled Miletic to be put in space on the left, but another ball across the 6 yard box evaded the Javor attackers.
At this point the main camera was started to get fogged up and was in need of a wipe. However, it was still possible to see Bosic cut in from the left and shoot from 20 yards, but again it was straight at the keeper who comfortably clutched to his stomach.
Vozdovac had a brief spell in the other half but a header from a corner went closer to the corner flag than the goal.
Javor won a free-kick 30 yards out on the left-hand side of the pitch and Bosic’s delivery sailed invitingly just beyond the far post but Doucoure failed to make contact with it.
Back at the other end, Vujanovic saw a 20 yard curling effort drift well wide for The Eagles and a few minutes later he sent a 25 yard effort a few yards wide. In-between the same player had sent a 25 yard free-kick into the wall after Burmaz had been fouled.
Javor were soon back on the attack though. A free-kick near the right-hand corner flag was hit low and left-footed into the danger-zone and struck a defender and ricocheted onto the bar, and Lukic headed the rebound over his own bar at the expense of a corner.
The subsequent corner also caused panic in the Vozdovac defence but the ball was scrambled clear to Petrovic on the edge of the area. His goal-bound shot struck team mate Tanko and fell kindly to Bosic to finish into the roof of the net from inside the 6 yard box to make it 1-0 after 43 minutes.
At the interval Javor deserved led as they had dominated, and Vozdovac had been restricted to the occasional foray at the other end. Strangely, the TV graphic showed that the visitors had enjoyed 55% of the possession, but it didn’t feel like that !
Vozdovac started the second period strongly and Flemmings played in Burmaz, but the shot from the edge of the box was tipped over the bar by the Javor keeper. Almost immediately Javor launched a counter attack. Tambo broke down the right and with a 2 on 1 passed a cross the area to find Bosic unmarked. The midfielder had time to control, take a step, and then drill into the bottom corner from 12 yards to make it 2-0 with 47 minutes on the clock with his second goal of the game.
Vozdovac responded by making their first substitution but almost immediately fell further behind. The impressive Gojkovic threaded a pass for Tanko to run past Lukic and into the area, and then slide the ball past Katic at his near post as he spread himself. It was now 3-0 after 51 minutes.
The rutted pitch was starting to cut-up and it was increasingly difficult to play passing football so play became scrappy. Javor were content to wind down the clock, with Gojkovic prominent in maintaining possession for his side.
The visitors did string together more than 6 passes to force a corner but it came to nothing.
With 13 minutes remaining substitute right-back Ilic showed great energy to make an over-lapping run and was played in by Gojkovic with a reverse pass. A pin-point cross to the centre of the 6 yard line was met by Tanko, who headed into the far corner to make it 4-0.
The game fizzled out after the fourth goal but there was still time for Gojkovic to send another ball across the face of the goal for no-one to take advantage of, but the referee decided to blow for full-time three second early and not play any added time. With the result already decided, he probably felt everyone would prefer to head for the warmth of the dressing rooms !
Overall, it was not a great game, but not helped by the conditions. Javor though were worthy winners, and moved up to 8th in the Superliga table.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mqES2sIjFQ
FK Javor-Matis Ivanjica : Manojlovic – Dolmagic ( Ilic ), Kopitovic, Obradovic, Miletic – Bosic ( Milosevic ), Doucoure, Petrovic ( Tojcic ) – Tanko ( Ratkovic ), Gojkovic, Gigic ( Loue ).
FK Vozdovac : Katic – Djurdjevic ( Novevski ), Zecevic, Lukic, Djuricic – Vujanovic ( Stoisavljevic ), Jocic, Flemmings, Matic ( Mitrovic ) – Neskovic ( Teodorovic ), Burmaz
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