In the Round of 32 of the Serbian Cup, Vojvodina will play against Jedinstvo in Rumenka on Wednesday. In that way, the red and whites will start defending the trophy they won last season, with a victory after a penalty shotout in the final against Partizan.
Jedinstvo from Rumenka competes in the Vojvodina League – Group South, where it currently occupies the third place on the table. Vojvodina and Jedinstvo have played only one friendly match so far, in the 2017/18 season, when the Old Lady won 0-2, so this will be the first official competitive match between the two clubs.
According to the words of the Manager of Vojvodina, Nenad Lalatović, the role of the favorites is on the side of the red and whites, but they will have to show that on the pitch.
– These are the “hardest matches”. We are the favorites, because the opponent comes from the fourth rank of the competition, but we must be careful, because they previously beat Zemun with 4-1, which is only one rank below us. Then, after half an hour, they were leading with 3-0, and although I did not have the opportunity to watch them, I heard that it is an experienced team, composed mainly of players between 28 and 32 years old, with experience from the First and Super League of Serbia. They also have a lot of players from Čelarevo, so they will certainly have a great motive to show themselves against Vojvodina – says Lalatović.
He does not think that Jedinstvo reconciled with the defeat in advance.
– They will not come out to the match with a white flag, but will want to surprise us, which is completely normal, because in football everyone wants to win. We will be extremely careful, and except for the injured goalkeeper Simić, all other players are at my disposal. I will not experiment much, because it will be played on their pitch, which is small, and the Cup is a specific competition, in which only one game is played – Lalatović points out.
It can be expected that Vojvodina will play in Rumenka in almost the strongest lineup.
– In order to avoid any surprises, I will take out 80 percent of the strongest team on the pitch. I will change maybe two or three players, because I am interested in entering the Round of 16 of the Cup. I hope that the players will take this match as seriously as possible and enter the match motivated, since you must not underestimate anyone today. Everyone plays football, which can be seen in the Bundesliga and Premier League. It happens there that the team from the fourth division knocks out the team that invested 100 times more than them, so I am extremely careful – said Lalatović.
The match between Jedinstvo and Vojvodina will be played on Wednesday at 2:30 PM in Rumenka, and if there are no winners after 90 minutes, the penalty shotout will be taken immediately.
