Today, the coach of Vojvodina FC, Božidar Bandović and the team captain Dejan Zukić announced that the trophy in the Cup of Serbia would be the best possible end to the season 2023/2024.

The players of the Old Lady are playing the grand finale on Tuesday, against the current champion of Mozzart Bet Superleague and the Cup of Serbia – Red Star, and in the team of Vojvodina there is great optimism and desire to win the third trophy in this competition.

The coach Bandović is aware of the importance of this match, but doesn’t want it to create a huge pressure before the match.

  • First of all, I would like to congratulate my players on the placement to the finale, and on achieving what they achieved in this tight and difficult schedule. We are aware that we can make history, and that is some kind of pressure, but the message to my players is that we need to be focused on what we do on the pitch. They know that I believe in them and their decisions, and I am here to support them whenever they make a mistake, because there will be mistakes, but we need to be concentrated on what we do. If we are disciplined and patient, we will have the chance to win the trophy, which is very significant. Our rival is also a great club, that won so many titles and double crowns, and is therefore a favorite, but we will prepare during these two-three days and give our all just like we have been doing so far.

We will have the support of our fans, which is very important. All the players are healthy. Matheus felt some pain in his leg before the last match in Kragujevac, and that is why he didn’t play, but he trained after that and we can count on him now. The only thing left is to recover the best we can in order to be fresh and ready and play another good match – Bandović said.

Dejan Zukić agrees, but adds that this team of Vojvodina has shown what they can handle, and that winning in the finale would be historic, because it means fall in Europe.

  • I agree with the coach. We are expecting a grand finale. I have been in the first team for six years, and I had that honor to raise the trophy in the Serbian Cup. The tight schedule is behind us already, we handle it all, regarding the fight, confidence and team spirit, we raised everything to the highest level in this part of the season. I think that for all the players, coach, fans and all the people in the Club, the trophy in the Cup would be a cherry on top. I believe that we can do it, and we proved what we can do in the previous games, just like we did against the Red Star at Karađorđe, and proved that we can play against anyone. The perfect end to this season would be the trophy that would also mean a direct placement to the group stage of the Conference League – Dejan Zukić highlighted.

Even though the Red Star rested most of their players before the finale, he pinpoints that exhaustion will not be present, and that the team is physically ready 100%.

  • It is not the first time that we have to deal with the fact that we have a tight schedule. The team showed so much, and now the only thing we need is good rest, and recovery. I saw the lineup of Red Star, it is obvious that they rested all the players who will play against us, but as good as that can be, it can also be bad. There is no tiredness, because this is the Cup finale, and the legs will run on their own, because we live for these games, and strength won’t be a problem – Zukić said.

Voša’s captain drew a parallel with the finale of the Cup in 2020, when Vojvodina won against Partizan and raised the trophy.

  • Đorđević and I were on the team then, and we commented the other day how Partizan also rested their players before the finale in 2020, so we have nothing against this scenario repeating itself now. If we compare the team then and now, we had a great team spirit among the players then, but I believe that this team has all that, plus if we look at everything in and around the club – the relations with the staff, the management, we have even more. On top of that, we have better individual quality than we did in 2020 – Zukić said.

In the end, Zukić highlighted that whether they are playing at home or away doesn’t have that much influence on his teammates, but he invited the fans to come in large numbers to support them in Loznica.

  • We are professionals, and now it doesn’t matter anymore if we are playing at our stadium, or at someone else’s. We had that problem before, which we overcame with difficulties, because we lost and drew quite often when playing away, but we broke that curse and we changed that in our heads. We have to give our all to overcome that, and in this season, we showed it. Nothing can happen and change that if we retain that mindset. Of course, we want as many of our fans as possible to come and support us, and we will pay them back in the best possible way – Zukić pointed out.

 

The coach Božidar Bandović won numerous trophies during his career, and from his own experience knows that these games are decided by details.

  • It is a great honor to be a coach of Vojvodina and play for the trophy, it is not my first time to play for the trophy, and there are plenty of players in the team who experience that, which is very important. The match can be decided by discipline, patience, and team spirit. It is possible that there will be two or three situations that we will have to realize. We won’t change a thing; we will play our game. Maybe there will be some tactical changes, we will see before the match. We have to be patient, and try to dominate, like we recently had some moments at the match at Karađorđe. The tight schedule is not a problem, we love that we are playing so much, that we have rhythm. As for the exhaustion, we have one goal and until we achieve it there is no tiredness, you have the goal in your head and you play until the end. There will be moments when you will think that you can’t, and that’s when you have to give your best and be brave, because that can be decisive in these situations – Bandović concluded.