In the 13th round of the Serbian Super League, Vojvodina will play against OFK Bačka at Karađorđe tomorrow. After the victory against Zlatibor, the red and whites were left alone in the second place on the table, and with the new victory they want to further strengthen their position and, if possible, get even closer to the leading Red Star.
However, that does not mean that the Old Lady has an easy task ahead of her, which is confirmed by the words of the Manager of Vojvodina, Nenad Lalatović.
– Bačka has shown that it can play against big clubs. It is an organized team, which plays beautiful and likable football, “to the foot”. Their players may be a bit shorter, but they are very fast and have a phenomenal half-counter and counter. They join the attack from the background and we must not underestimate them at any moment. They left an impression on me in the friendly match we played against them, when it was 1-1, and we were losing until the 90th minute, when we scored from a free kick. Even then, they caught my eye, so there is no relaxation. The most difficult matches are those that are won in advance – says Lalatović.
He is extremely satisfied with the current placement of his team on the table.
– Being ahead of Partizan, TSC, Čukarički, Spartak and others and approaching Red Star to only six points is not a small thing. They say that Red Star escapes Partizan by nine points, and again no one mentions Vojvodina, which bothers every one of our fans and citizens of Novi Sad. Not only Red Star and Partizan play football. I am very proud that we are currently the second and first to follow Red Star. I hope that we will continue like that, and the wish of all of us in the club, as well as our fans, is to stay in the second position – Lalatović points out.
The Manager of Vojvodina notes that Voša will not be able to play against OFK Bačka in its full squad.
– Due to yellow cards, we will not be able to count on Čovic tomorrow. Unfortunately, Topić got a kick in the leg again and left the training ten minutes earlier, so we will see if he will be ready for tomorrow’s match. I could not count on Vukadinović against Zlatibor, because he did not feel the best, but he has now recovered. Yesterday, all players and members of the staff did tests for the corona virus and all the results are negative – Lalatović notes.
He believes that Vojvodina is deservedly among the two best teams in Serbia.
– The table shows that we are in better form than Partizan at the moment. It is a great club, with great players and a coach about whom there is no need to waste words. They deserve all the praise, but the facts show that we have beaten them in the last three matches and that we are currently three points ahead of them. Lately, we have been better than them – says Lalatović.
According to him, it is not impossible for Voša to fight for the league title this season.
– Even when we said that we want to win the Cup, no one took us seriously. We succeeded in that, so why not win the title as well? It does not necessarily mean that Red Star and Partizan will change every year as if on a tape. A third club appeared, and that is Vojvodina. Red Star is six points away from us and is coming here, and I would very much like us not to make any mistakes until then, so that we can play a nice derby game here and try to get one step closer. Vojvodina is a great club and it belongs to it to be the champion of Serbia, so I hope that will happen soon. My goal is to win the trophy with my Vojvodina this season as well – Lalatović points out.
However, he claims that there is no pressure in his team to win the title.
– There is no reason for pressure and I try to think from game to game. Although I do not visit bookmakers, I know that the odds on us are very small now. Vojvodina is as big as it used to be and is the favorite whoever it plays against. It is the same against Bačka, where we have pressure to win. I think that is normal, because Vojvodina should win almost every game. We have a good team, with great guys, although, of course, you can’t win every time – Lalatović notes.
This season, Vojvodina suffered only two defeats in the league.
– In Ivanjica, we played perhaps our best game against Javor, and Javor then played a draw against Red Star. We suffered the second defeat from Novi Pazar, which had previously beaten Partizan. Our team is made up of players from the Super League. It may be a surprise that Partizan loses in Novi Pazar, with Asano, Natho, Sadiq and Soumah, because they are players who earn a lot of money in Serbia. The same goes for the Red Star draw against Javor. When Vojvodina loses on such away game, it is not the end of the world, although I see it that way, because I think that my team can beat everyone – says Lalatović.
He has achieved 61 victories on the bench of Vojvodina so far, so he is missing only one more triumph to become the coach with the most victories in the history of the club. He has led the Old Lady in 102 games so far, and many are wondering whether he will enter the history of the club according to that parameter too, considering that the coach of the first champion generation of Vojvodina, Branko Stanković, is in the first place in this category. He sat on the red-and-white bench 140 times.
– When I first came to Vojvodina, I could not even dream that such beautiful things would happen to me, that is, that I would win the trophy and become the fourth coach in the history of the club to do so. I didn’t expect to make records like this, but I did dream, and when a man wants and dreams something, then his dreams come true. My dream is slowly coming true, and if God allows us to win tomorrow, I will no longer chase other people’s records, but others will chase mine. That’s a really great fact. I am happy to be the coach of Vojvodina and to be in Novi Sad, which I see as my second home. I found myself here and I enjoy it, and I hope that we will all be together for a long time – said Lalatović.
The match between Vojvodina and OFK Bačka will be played tomorrow at 6 pm at Karađorđe, with a live broadcast on the first channel of Arena Sport television. Due to the current epidemiological situation, the match will be played without the presence of spectators.
