BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 1st WEEK

Bosnian football has an early start because of the 3 months half-season break from November to March, due to hard winter conditions.

The first week matches were played in August 4-5 in BH Telecom Premijer Liga, as officially called sinced the telecomunication company of BH made a two years deal with the football federation of BH on sponsorship of BH Premijer League.

The first three ranking teams of the last season; Zeljeznicar, Şiroki Brijeg and Sarajevo had the same result: 0-0. Those who could not succeed in European cups also did not have a good start fort he season as well.

Zeljeznicar, who had double cup last year in BH competetions and directly played in the second qualifying stage of the Champions League with Slovenian Maribor and defeated at home match 2-1 and 4-1 at away match and had an early god bye to CL did not have a joyful start in Bosnian league as well. They had a draw with Travnik: 0-0.

Zeljo’s last season’s rival Şiroki Brijeg, who lost the Bosnian Cup final to Zeljo and who was runner up after Zeljo, had also an unsatisfactory start to the season. They had a farewell to Europa Liga by a 1-1 home draw and 2-1 away defeat against Irish St. Patrick’s, and had a draw against Slavija, who survived from relegating in the last week of last season.

Sarajevo, who qualified from first qualifying round in Europa League by 5-2 home victory against Maltese team Hibernians and 4-4 away draw played against Levski Sofia in the second qualifying round. The first leg played in Bulgaria was signified by Levski fans’ racist beahivor where Sarajevo lost 1-0. The second leg was a 3-1 home victory for Sarajevo. The first leg of the third qualifying round was a 2-1 home victory against Montenegrin Zeta, but it seems a hard match awaits for Sarajevo in the second leg which will be played on August 9, Thursday. While focusing on Thursday’s match, Sarajevo had a home 0-0 draw against Çelik.

Borac, who finished at fourth place in BH Premijer League last year was eliminated by Montenegrin Çelik Nikşiç in the first qualifying round of Europa League. However, they had a brilliant start to the league by a 3-0 home victory against Zvijezda with Stokiç’s goals at 28th and 60th and Kruniç’s 84th minute goals.

Another team which had a superb start was Mostar’s Velez with a 3-0 home victory against last year’s Republika Srpska First League champion and this year’s BH Premijer League’s new team Radnik Bijeljina. Velez’s goals were scored by Çemaloviç at 6th and 68th minute and 64th minute by Hebiboviç just after four minutes when he was replaced instead of Serdareviç. Radnik Bijeljina, who also played in Premijer League in 2005-2006 aims to not to be relegated, but did not have a good start.

Another new team of Premijer League, Gradina Srebrenik which was established in 1963 and the only team with black and white colors with a white lilian in the amblem of the team had a 1-1 home draw against GOŞK Gabela.

In the week of draws, apart from Borac and Velez, Leotar was the third team who started the season with a 1-0 home victory against Zrinjski.

Olimpik had a 1-1 home draw against Rudar .

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 1st week are as follow:

Borac Banja Luka: 3 – Zvijezda Gradaçac: 0

Velez Mostar: 3 – Radnik Bijeljina: 0

Leotar Trebinje 1 – Zrinjski Mostar: 0

Gradina Srebrenik: 1 – GOŞK Gabela: 1

Olimpik Sarajevo: 1 – Rudar Prijedor: 1

FK Sarajevo: 0 – Çelik Zenica: 0

Şiroki Birjeg: 0 – Slavija: 0

NK Travnik: 0 – Zeljeznicar : 0

Standings of the teams by the end of 1st week:

(source: www.nfsbih.ba)

Next Week’s Schedule (Week 2: August 11-12):

GOŞK – Zvijezda

Zeljo – Borac

Slavija – Travnik

Zrinjski – Şiroki Brijeg

Radnik – Leotar

Çelik – Velez

Rudar – Sarajevo

Gradina – Olimpik

FK NOVI PAZAR

Serbian Super League matches will start this weekend, and Novi Pazar wşill be playing the first match of the season on August 11 against Radniçki Niş, who attained to Super Liga this season. While playing with Radniçki 1923 in away match, a difficult home match awaits for Novi Pazar at third week against Red Star.

Novi Pazar had reached last season’s target by managing not to be relegated from the Super Liga and they made new reinforcements to the team especially fort he defence. Nenad Todoroviç, aged 30 who played for long years in Hungarian league seems to be a strong member of Pazar defence. The new goalkeeper, Denis Mujkiç from Çelik Zenica is another good transfer. However, the expectations from midfielder Dario Damjanoviç, a Bosnian national squad member and with three years experience in Hajduk Split and 7 years experience in Kaiserslautern (2nd team).