Coming up: football and basketball tomorrow, with no pause

Tomorrow brings two matches in a row, once the first finishes, the second starts. The football team opens the day at 16:30. They will play against OFK Beograd - that match that is still left from Round 9 of SuperLiga. The match takes place in ul. Humska.
- Maybe we look more dead than alive, but reality is completely different - Marko Nikolić brought up the two lost matches against Besiktas and Jagodina. - The team of Besiktas was another dimension. As for Jagodina, right now we have no time to celebrate, nor to be sad. We won eight competitive matches. The one against Jagodina was the time for loss... Now it is time again to win - said the head coach with hope.
- The match against OFK has psychological importance. If we won, we would be the first on the league table again, leading with 2 points ahead of Vojvodina and 4 ahead of Crvena Zvezda. It will definitely be a good match.
Injuries weaken the team; Ostojić is in Istambul now on a checkup, Brašanac is at Belgrade’s Vojnomedicinska Akademija hospital and at this very moment nobody can say anything when he will fully recover. Vulićević must undergo operation in Germany soon.
- There will surely be changes in the team. Some have been playing from the beginning of the season, for now they are exhausted. Now the time has come for those who had been in the background. A few players deserve to rest, they are overloaded.

The football team is followed by the basketball players. Eurocup’s new round is coming up and they’ll meet Hapoel Jerusalem at an away match. They start at 18:30. Duško Vujošević does not have any illusions.
- Of course we want to win and we’ll bring the best out of ourselves, but let’s be honest and do not have high expectations - he said. - We are motivated to win and I’d be very happy if we did so, but right now the expectation is to do our best.
- Hapoel is a very good team, no wonder they take part in Eurocup, or previously in Euroleague - said second trainer Velimir Gašić. - They are in great shape compared to last season. They have five players from the US, they all bring very serious offensive power.
The team will miss Milan Mačvan, who got a smaller injury earlier.

ArenaSport 1 broadcasts both matches live.

News in bulk

Partizan’s stadium will get renovated. It is highly acute not just for the upcoming Europa League matches, but also because the stadium will host three friendly football matches (against France, Albania and Denmark). Aleksandar Stepanović has been in charge for the establishment for 20 years now, juznifront.com cites his words.
- The guests' locker room had to be fully renovated. A new, modern place has been equipped for the journalists as well, one that fits for strict European standards. The current, 1400 lux reflectors got 100 lux extra power. Benches near the field are also renovated. The grass will also be refreshed. It happened last time in 2004, it has been in use for 10 years now, yet it should be renewed in every 4th year. It's also high time to renovate the watering equipments.

***

There are rumours about investment companies appearing around Partizan. It means, the football team might soon be privatized. There are no facts yet, nor official statements (or denials). An unnamed informator hinted the news that an investment company from Austria has been seriously interested in Partizan as much that they even negotiate with the Serbian government about the possible purchasing of the team. Austrians allegedly want to build a brand new stadium for Partizan

Hey, hey, hey!... What's wrong with the current one?... What's wrong with the dearest, beloved JNA Stadion that lived through so much?...

and they would equip it with the newest, modern infrastructure and everything else. The offer is between $80 and 100 million. The unnamed informator said, $100 million is more realistic, because the Austrian company seriously wants to build a new stadium. They think, with no new infrastructure there will be no development either.
Partizan's president Dragan Đurić added, it would have been high time to privatize the team, because without investing companies only the team's debts would rise.

***

Darko Brašanac got seriously injured at the Italy-Serbia U21 European Championship qualifying. The defender had to come off in the 19th minute and was taken immediately to a hospital in Pescara with broken ribs and injured lung. Currently he is still in Italy, he could not get on the plane to come back to Serbia with the team. Even the most cautious guessings say he needs at least a month of pause.

Italian emergency medicals picked Brašanac's pieces up and rushed him to hospital

(photo: blic.rs)

***

The water polo team qualified themselves to Adriatic League. In the League there are 16 teams - 4 from Serbia, 8 from Croatia, 3 from Montenegro and 1 from Slovenia - divided to two groups. The first four from the groups will qualify themselves to the final.

Group A:

Primorje (CRO)

Mladost (CRO)

Budva (MNE)

POŠK (CRO)

Jadran S (CRO)

Branik (SLO)

Radnički (SRB)

Partizan (SRB)

Group B:

Jug (CRO)

Jadran HN (MNE)

Mornar (CRO)

Primorac (MNE)

Medveščak (CRO)

Opatija (CRO)

Crvena Zvezda (SRB)

Vojvodina (SRB)

Matches start on 4th October, the final will be in the beginning of next April.

The water polo team qualified themselves to Champions League as well. Partizan is in Group B together with Galatasaray (TUR), Jug (CRO) and Spandau (GER). The other two participants will be decided after the qualifyings. In Group A there are Barceloneta (ESP), Olimpiakos (GRE), Eger (HUN) and Brescia (ITA).

***

Everyone's favourite Belgrade punk band, Grupa JNA released a new song today. The song's titled "Dete Partizana".
Pogo on!

News from the basketball and football departments

Nikola Milutinov is in hospital. Nothing serious happened, KK Partizan's center had to undergo a tonsillectomy at the Belgrade City Clinics. To make all fans sure he is in the best hands, the operation was performed by Prof. Dr. Rade Kosanović. The anaesthetist was Dr. Dragan Marinković - both medicals are great fans of Partizan.
Milutinov must stay in hospital for the weekend, he can go home on Monday. He has to rest at least for two more weeks.

***

Marko Nikolić was punished by the Serbian Football Association for that red card he got at the match against Radnički last week. The trainer is not allowed on the bench at the upcoming match against Donji Srem (this Sunday at 19:00), and he has to pay a 200 000-dinar-fee as well.
The reason behind it all is that he got the red card because he "got into conflict" with the opponent players. Nikolić himself said only that he wanted to prevent a major incident.

I got this forbiddance that he is not allowed on the bench. But for God's sake, this 200 000-dinar fee is way too much.