What a victory! With such a great game!
Our defense line was like concrete. Živković, Radojković, Ćućuz (and everyone else) did a fantastic job.
I brought you LOTS of screenshots.
The teams line up for introducing the players
National anthem with flag
Radojković (17) and Popović (33) during the Serbian anthem
Youth players holding the team logo
The beginning was a nip-and-tuck game (at one point Zvezda took the lead as well), but afterwards we were leading until the end. The opponent couldn’t even equalize. We didn’t allow them to take over control.
Živković is about to score from penalty (he did so, we were leading to 2:1)
Then Zvezda equalized and they took the lead at this point (2:3). It was only the 6th minute of the game, but referees already sent off Popović for 2 minutes.
Popović had a great game today. He was the bastillon of the defense, Zvezda could approach the goal area only through his dead body.
Maksić rushing back after he equalized (3:3)
Kukić is about to throw a penalty (from which he’ll score and Partizan will lead to 4:3)
Referees didn’t really like us. In the first 10 minutes they sent off two Partizan-players for 2 minutes (one of them was Popović mentioned above, the other was Sretenović), other than this they generously handed out yellow cards. At the beginning they gave out at least 3 (okay, they were for Zvezda, too). Then at 5:5 Partizan got fed up with this nip-and-tuck fumbling and we put ourselves into action.
The moment when Sretenović got his 2-minute penalty. Kukić took back the lead for us just before that
Kukić then sped up and scored two more goals for us. We jumped to 8:6.
Lazar Kukić
And we continued it like this, always with an advantage of at least 2-3 goals.
Milan Ćućuz, one of the heroes of the derby. He had fantastic saves for the whole game
Like this one
This was one of the best moments of the match. Zvezda attacked, but Partizan’s defense line tackled them. Radojković grabbed the ball, ran up, made an amazing counter-attack, then raised up to the air and smashed a HUGE goal into the net. (12:9)
Nemanja Živković from behind, as he’s wiping his face
Then our captain Mršulja also signed himself on the list of goal scorers a few times. We finished the first half with 16:13.
Oppa Zvezda-style - the head coach angrily explains something to Mandić, who claims (seemingly annoyed) that whatever it is about, it was not his fault
Živković scored the last goal of the first half, after that he laid on the court in pain
Ivan "Grozni" Popović
The second half started immediately with Popović being sent off for the second time. Zvezda took advantage of the power play and reduced the difference to 16:15, meanwhile we missed out a number of chances.
Pešić can’t believe his eyes after one of these missed-out attempts
Finally Radojković broke the silence and in the 34th minute he made us jump to 17:15 (he is hurrying back on this screenshot after his goal)
Then we didn’t stop until 19:16, but even then it was just for Ćućuz and his great penalty-saving.
Afterwards we continued with the goal-factory. At this screenshot Živković is celebrating the team’s 20th goal scored by him of course.
This was that point, around the 44th minute that the referees got totally fed up with Popović and they sent him off for the third (and last) time.
Popović got standing ovation and walked off the court like a hero
But even the referees couldn’t stop us marching towards victory. Zvezda had some bitter, struggling attempts, but our defense line was harder than the walls of Kalemegdan.
Meanwhile Popović walked up to the tribune and sat down among fans
Unfortunately I couldn’t catch that frenetic moment, when Živković scored the world’s greatest troll goal at 25:22. He ran up, broke through the defense, raised up to the skies, then lobbed the ball above the goalkeeper’s head with a refined movement. Instead I caught that, when Kukić speeds up (then at the end of the attack, when the goalkeeper is about to pass the ball to the teammate for another Zvezda-attack, Sretenović appears out of the blue and throws the ball into the net among the shocked red players).
Here he is, Stevan Sretenović, celebrating his goal
A few more screenshots from the match:
Mršulja celebrating his goal he scored while Zvezda (!) was in power play
Head coach Nenad Maksić
Pešić scored our last goal
End of the match, Sretenović goes to shake hands with the opponent
End result and a victorious Živan Pešić
Group hug
The hero of the game is Mihajlo Radojković with 7 goals. He is followed by Nemanja Živković (6), Živan Pešić (5), Lazar Kukić and Igor Mršulja (4-4), Stevan Sretenović (3) as well as Aleksa Maksić (1).
This game and the upcoming two will determine whether we can enter SEHA League next season. We won this match, in the next round we’ll play against Sloga (away), then in the last round we’ll be the hosts against Metaloplastika. Metaloplastika is definitely one of the toughest opponents, yet we must not shrug off Sloga either.
Still it’s not impossible.
COME ON, BOYS, TAKE ’EM ALL!!!
Current standing of the play-off:
1. Vojvodina 13 points
2. Metaloplastika 13 points
3. Partizan 10 points
4. Spartak Vojput 7 points
5. Sloga 3 points
6. CZ 2 points
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