BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 25th WEEK

 THE STRUGGLE IS NOT AT THE TOP ANYMORE, BUT IN THE BOTTOM

Sarajevo and Borac had a 1-1 draw in Banja Luka, which made it clear that the maroon whites are no more in the struggle for the championship. Sarajevo found the first goal by the young scorer Alen Melunovic in minute 11. However, the equalizer goal came at 66th minute by Admir Rascic.

The leader had an unsurprising 4-0 victory in Grbavica against Gradina Srebrenik who will not be in Premijer League next season.

The draw result with Sarajevo made Borac to lose the advantage against Olimpik Sarajevo with whom they are struggling for the third position to have the right to compete in UEFA Championship. Now they have the same point: 44.

However, a difficult match waits for Olimpik against Zeljo next week while Borac may lose points against Velez in Mostar as well.

If both will lose points, surely Çelik may gain some advantage and have a claim for the third place as well. They have defeated Zrinjski in away match this week and next week they will have an easy match against Radnik Bijeljina.

Since Gradina Srebrenik’s relegation is arithmetically proved, the second team who will relegate is the mention of interest. Currently GOŞK Gabela with 23 points is the one who is below the red line. Just above is NK Travnik with 24 points. GOŞK had an important one point in away match against Radnik Bijeljina and since Travnik had a home defeat against Velez Mostar the point difference between GOŞK and Travnik is reduced to “one”. Next week GOŞK will play against Şiroki Brijeg at home and it is not expected that Catholic fraternity will made the things worse for GOŞK where Şiroki Brijeg is focused more on Bosnian Cup. Travnik, on the other side must have points against Leotar who had a good start to season, but could not sustain.

ŞIROKİ BRIJEG THROUGH THE BOSNIAN CUP

The first leg of the Bosnian Cup final was played in April 30 in Grbavica. Şiroki Brijeg had an early goal at 5th but the railroaders found the equalizer goal at 19th. Since Zeljo could not manage to score any more goals, Şiroki Brijeg returned back to home with advantage before the second leg in Şiroki Brijeg at May 15th.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 25^th week are as follow:

Borac Banja Luka: 1 – FK Sarajevo: 1

FK Slavija: 3 – Rudar Prijedor: 1

NK Travnik: 0 – Velez Mostar: 0

HŞK Zrinjski: 0 – Çelik Zenica: 2

Zeljeznicar: 4 – Gradina Srebrenik: 0

Radnik Bijeljina: 1 – GOŞK Gabela: 1

Şiroki Brijeg: 1 – Leotar Trebinje: 1

Zvijezda Gradacac: 0 – Olimpik Sarajevo: 1

Standings of the teams by the end of 25th week:

(Source: www.rezultati.com)

Next Week’s Schedule (Week 26)

Velez – Borac

Çelik – Radnik

GOŞK – Şiroki Brijeg

Gradina – Slavija

Leotar – Travnik

Prijedor – Zrinjski

Sarajevo – Zvijezda

Olimpik - Zeljo

FK SLOBODA TUZLA

Sloboda had a magnificent performance in the second half of the season and became a candidate of the leadership, however had a surprising home defeat against Rudar Kakanj and lost the claims to be leader by not using the advantage while the leader Vitez and runner-up Radniçki had a 2-2 draw. Currently Sloboda (with one match played less) is 7 points below Vitez and 4 points below Radniçki and will play against Vitez next week, which will determine if Sloboda will continue to struggle or not.

FK NOVI PAZAR: TEAM FOR HARD TIMES

FK Novi Pazar continued the tradition this week as well. Pazar had a very important one point by not allowing the leader Partizan to score a single goal. However, there are still just 3 points difference between Novi Pazar and Radniçki 1923 who is just below the red line. Pazar has the same point with Donji Srem and just one point above Hajduk Kula and Borca.

Novi Pazar will have an away match against Sloboda Uzice this week. Borca will host Spartak Subotica who is not in danger of the red line, nor do they have a claim for upper ranks in the league. It is almost certain that Donji Srem will have three points from Smederovo. Hajduk Kula will play home match against Javor and if Javor will have a defeat, they will be closer to red line as well.

Standings of the teams in Serbian Prva Liga by the end of 25th week:

(Source: www. utakmica.rs)

(Photo: Oslobodjenje)

BOSNIAN PREMIJER LEAGUE 13th WEEK

With 5 red cards in 8 matches, it can be said as a tough week for the players in the Premijer Liga. 13th week was dominated by three 0-0 draws as well.

Sarajevo, who had a very important victory against his rival last week, had an away draw with Slavija, which was just to relegate from the Premijer League last season and caused the difference between Zeljo and Sarajevo to drop to one point. On the other side Zeljo had a modest 1-0 home victory against Velez but gained a 3 golden points and became closer to the leader who had beaten the railroaders last weekend.

Surprise from Olimpik!

The most surprising score of the week came from Mostar. Olimpik had a 4-1 away victory against Zrinjski. The first half of the match was without a goal, but Olimpik managed to score at 61st minute by Semir Kapiç. Olimpik scored the second goal from a penalty at 71st minute. Not only the goal, but also Zrinjski’s defender Ante Radeljic’s absence by a red card causing the penalty kick comforted Olimpik for the rest of the match. Olimpik is recognized as a team with mentality which aims to avoid rival offense first, and then may think of goal, and is a team which is famous of having “modest” scores. However, benefiting from the fact that the rival was playing with 10 players, tried more on offense and scored 2 more goals and increased to 4th position in the league table. There is only goal difference with the third Şiroki Brijeg who has the same points.

It seems one of the two teams which will relegate at the end of the season is more or less clear: Gradina Srebrenik, the fresh team of the Premijer League will probably turn back to First League of FBiH after a season in Premijer Liga. The struggle to not to be the second team will probably be quite harsh.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 12th week are as follow:

Zeljeznicar: 1 – Velez Mostar: 0

HŞK Zrinjski: 1 - Olimpik Sarajevo: 4

FK Slavija: 0 - FK Sarajevo: 0

Borac Banja Luka: 0 - Şiroki Brijeg: 0

Çelik Zenica: 2 - Rudar Prijedor: 1

Zvijezda Gradaçac: 0 - Leotar Trebinje: 1

Radnik Bijeljina: 1 - Gradina Srebrenik: 0

NK Travnik: 0 - GOŞK Gabela: 0

Standings of the teams by the end of 13th week:

(Source: www.rezultati.com)

Next week’s schedule:

Gradina – Çelik

Leotar – Zeljo

Olimpik – Radnik

Şiroki Brijeg – Zvijezda

Travnik – Borac

Velez – Slavija

GOŞK - Rudar

FK SLOBODA TUZLA

After an easy victory against NK Krajişnik Velika Kladuşa, who is at the bottom of the table, Sloboda is again at the 5th position. Next week’s away match against FK Buduçnost Banoviçi will probably not be a difficult match in sense that it can really not be regarded as away match, since Banoviçi is just 35 kilometres away from Tuzla and Buduçnost is 12th in the league table.

Standings of the teams by the end of 14th week in First League of FBH:

(Source: www.sportsport.ba)

FK NOVI PAZAR

Novi Pazar was defeated by strong rival Vojvodina in away match with the single goal scored at 4th minute and succeeded to avoid an expected defeat with some goals. With this result, Novi Pazar dropped to 10th rank in the league and a possible home victory against Javor may allow Pazar to jump a few steps higher again.

Standings of the teams by the end of 12th week in Serbian Super Liga:

(Source: www.utakmica.rs)

(Photo: sportsport.ba)

BOSNIAN CUP SECOND ROUND SECOND LEG MATCHES PLAYED

The second leg matches of the Bosnian Cup, where the teams ahead to quarter finals were determined were played by October 24, 2012 where the first leg matches were played on October 3, 2012.

Sarajevo had a 2-1 home victory by two goals of Emir Hadziç, which was not enough for the revenge of the 3-1 first match result. İgor Aniçiç, who was star of the previous match with hat-trick, had scored the only crucial goal of his team when the score was 1-0 for Sarajevo.

(Photo: Sarajevo captain Sedin Torlak struggling in the match against Zrinjski on Wednesday night, Oslobodjenje)

Zeljo had an easy 3-0 home victory against Slavija, with two goals from Vernes Selimoviç and an own goal by Slavija’s young defender right Jovan Svitlica. The first leg was 3-1 away victory for railroaders.

Şiroki Brijeg, who had a spectacular 6-0 away victory against Hajduk Orasje, had disappointed the fans with a modest 1-0 victory, which had an expectation of watching half dozen of goals.

Olimpik Sarajevo, who had a shameful 0-0 home draw against First League of BiH team Çapljina, could pass the stage only after penalty shoots.

The results of the second leg matches of the second round of Bosnian Cup are as follow:

(The scores in parenthesis are the first leg scores and the bold written teams are those who qualified to quarter finals)

Velez Mostar: 0 - ZVİJEZDA GRADAÇAC: 3 (2-1)

FK Sarajevo: 2 HŞK ZRİNJSKİ: 1 (1-3)

ŞİROKİ BRİJEG: 1 - Hajduk Oraşje: 0 (6-0)

Radnik Bijeljina: 0 - GOŞK GABELA: 0 – (0-1)

SLOGA DOBOJ: 2 - Sutjeska Foça: 1(1-1)

Rijeka Vitez: 0 - ÇELİK ZENİCA: 1 (0–2)

ZELJEZNİCAR: 3 - FK Slavija: 0 – (3-1)

Çapljina: 0 - OLİMPİK SARAJEVO: 2 (0-0)

BOSNIAN CUP SECOND ROUND FIRST LEG MATCHES PLAYED

Second round first leg matches of Bosnian Cup are played in October 3, 2012, Wednesday.

The leader of Premijer League, Sarajevo had an unexpected 3-1 away defeat by Zrinjski. The Serbian player of Zrinjski, Igor Anicic, undoubtedly the man of the match, scored three goals of his team, of which the last one was from a penalty kick. The capital city team found the single goal by Samir Nuhanovic at 82th minute, which made Sarajevo to have a little hop efor the second leg.   

(Photo: Aniçiç is celebrated by his teammmates after his hat-trick against Sarajevo, Dnevni Avaz)

Slavija had a good start by a goal at seventh minute against Zeljeznicar. However, railroaders found the equlizer goal by Eldin Adiloviç at 17th minute. Zeljo’s second goal came by Adiloviç again at 43th minute and the score of the match was determined by Elvir Çoliç at 75th minute: 3-1.

Another team who was victorous in away match was Şiroki Brijeg. Hajduk Orasje, playing in the Northern League of Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina, the third level league in Bosnia, which should not be confused with HNK Oraşje, the other football team of the town, could not resist against Şiroki Brijeg. Şiroki Brijeg had an away 6-0 victory by three goals in each half.

Not only succesfull in avoiding goals against, but also succesful in scoring goals for, Olimpik had a home draw against First League of FBiH team Çapljina and made it difficult to succeed to quarter finals.

The results of the first leg matches of the third round of Bosnian Cup are as follow:

Zvijezda Gradaçac: 1 – Velez Mostar: 2

HŞK Zrinjski: 3 – FK Sarajevo: 1

Hajduk Oraşje: 0 – Şiroki Brijeg: 6

GOŞK Gabela: 1 – Radnik Bijeljina: 0

Sutjeska Foça: 1 – Sloga Doboj: 1

Çelik Zenica: 2 – Rijeka Vitez: 0

FK Slavija: 1 – Zeljeznicar: 3

Olimpik Sarajevo: 0 – Çapljina: 0

The second leg matches will be played on October 17, 2012.

(Photo: Aniçiç is celebrated by his teammmates after his hat-trick against Sarajevo, Dnevni Avaz)

SECOND ROUND MATCHES IN CUP BiH

The second round matches for the Cup Bosnia and Herzegovina will be played tomorrow (October, 3, 2012). The match Schedule including the place of the matches and the previous qualification matches of the rival teams are listed below:

Zvijezda Gradaçac  – Velez Mostar

15:30, Gradaçac

Zvijezda Gradaçac: 5 – Rudar Ugrljevik: 0

Velez Mostar: 3 - Mladost Donji Svilaj: 0

HŞK Zrinjski – FK Sarajevo

17:00, Mostar

Rudar Prijedor: 0 – HŞK Zrinjski: 1

FK Sarajevo: 1 – Gradina Srebrenik: 0

Hajduk Oraşje – Şiroki Brijeg

15:30, Oraşje

Modrica Maxima: 0 – Hajduk Oraşje: 1

Branitelj Mostar: 0 – Şiroki Birjeg: 2

GOŞK Gabela – Radnik Bijeljina

15:30, Gabela

NK Travnik: 1 – GOŞK Gabela: 3

Radnik Bijeljina: 6 – Rudar Zenica: 0

Sutjeska Foça – Sloga Doboj

18:30, Foça

Sloga Doboj: 4 – Tomislav: 0

Sutjeska Foça: 1 – Famos Napredak: 0

Çelik Zenica – Rijeka Vitez

15:30, Zenica

Çelik Zenica: 2 – Podgremec: 1

Rijeka Vitez: 2 – Drina Vişegrad: 1

FK Slavija – Zeljeznicar

Lukavica, 15:30

Leotar Trebinje: 0 – FK Slavija: 1

Mrkonjic Grad: 0 – Zeljeznicar: 3

Olimpik Sarajevo – Çapljina

Otoka, 15:30

Olimpik Sarajevo: 1 – ECOS Vitez: 0

Çapljina: 2 – Borac Banja Luka: 1

The second leg matches will be played at October 17, 2012.

BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 8th WEEK

(Click here for the original text in Haber Boşnak, published October 2, 2012)

(2 Ekim 2012 tarihinde Haber Boşnak’ta yayınlanan özgün metin için buraya tıklayınız)

Despite they fell five points behind the leader Sarajevo, Zeljeznicar passed Çelik away match with three very valuable points with a result of 2-1 and preserved his runner-up position. Zenica team had a quick start of the game and scored the first goal at seventh minute by Coviç. However, could not preserve the score. Adiloviç scored Zeljo’s first goal at 35th, and just at the end of the second half, Brkoviç scored the victory goal at 86th minute.

Furious Sarajevo added three more points by an easy home victory against Şiroki Brijeg. Husejinoviç scored the first goal of his team at 44th minute, and the experienced libero Torlak scored the second goal of his team at 66th minute. Şiroki could find their single goal at 90+4, which was not enough fort hem to claim for one more goal for a draw.

With the excellent performance, Sarajevo is five points in front of the runner-up Zeljeznicar in Premijer League.

 Zrinjski, which is just following the leader and runner-up silently but surely passed GOŞK Gabela in away match with a single goal.

(Photo: Dnevni Avaz)

Olimpik Sarajevo, had a 2-0 home victory against Travnik by two goals from Smajic. Since the beginning of the season, it is the first time that Olimpik managed to score 2 goals in the same match. Next week, they will play away match against Borac, who currently holds the fourth position in the Premijer League and Olimpik holds the fifth.

The recent spectacular team of Premijer League; Borac had a clear 3-1 away victory against Gradina Srebrenik.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 8th week are as follow:

FK Sarajevo: 2 – Şiroki Brijeg: 1

Çelik Zenica: 1 – Zeljeznicar: 2

GOŞK Gabela: 0 – HŞK Zrinjski

Gradina Srebrenik: 1 – Borac Banja Luka: 3

Olimpik Sarajevo: 2 – NK Travnik: 0

Radnik Bijeljina: 2 – FK Slavija: 0

Velez Mostar: 1 – Leotar Trebinje: 1

Rudar Prijedor: 2 – Zvijezda Gradaçac: 0

Standings of the teams by the end of 8th week:

 (Source: www.nfsbih.ba)

Next Week’s Schedule (Week 9)

Leotar – GOŞK

Şiroki Brijeg – Velez

Travnik – Sarajevo

Borac – Olimpik

Zvijezda – Gradina

Slavija – Çelik

Zeljo – Rudar

Zrinjski - Radnik

FK NOVI PAZAR

Pazar had an easy home 2-0 victory against Donji Srem.

Miloş Bogunoviç, who were quite act,ive in Novi Pazar’s struggle to succeed to play in Prva Liga, who also played in Cadiz in Spain and in Partizan Beograd previously, with a moderate career, scored Pazar’s first goal in the beginning of the second half at 48th minute. Damjanoviç was able to make a goal from the penalty kick at 73rd minute and Novi Pazar became at 5th position in Prva Liga after this match.

Pazarci are confident with Pazar’a current standing.

Next week, Pazar will have an important away match with Jagodina who holds the fourth position in the table an deven one single point would be good enough for Novi Pazar.

Standings of the teams in Serbian Prva Liga by the end of 7th week:

(Source: www. utakmica.rs)

BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 4th WEEK

(Click here for the original Turkish text in Haber Boşnak, published August 29, 2012.)

(8 Mayıs 2012 tarihinde Haber Boşnak'ta yayınlanan özgün metin için buraya tıklayınız)

The leader and runner up positions were occupied by capital city teams this week as well. Despite having the same goal difference, since Zeljo’s 8 goals made the railroaders to be at the top of the table.

Last season’s champion was hosted by GOŞK. The match was scheduled to be played at 17:00 because of the lack of lighting system in Gabela’s Podavala Stadium which avoided the match to be played in the evening surviving from the sharp heat of Hercegovina. Gabela, stemming his name from the Arabic word for “customs, is the bordering town of BiH with Croatia, predominantly populated by Bosnian Croats and recognized as one of the hottest settlements in the country.

At minute 9, Zeljo’s scorer Zeba’s goal was replied by Jusufbaşiç from the host team just two minutes after. At the end of the first half, in 44th minute, Selimoviç scored for Zeljo and the first haf’s score was 2-1 for the guest team. The players were quite exhausted because of the heat in the second half. However, Zeljo’s experienced Adiloviç scored his team’s third goal in the 80th minute, which was replied by Jusufbaşiç again at 82th, which determined the result of the match: 2-3 for Zeljo.

 In the match in Otoka, FK Sarajevo was victorous against Olimpik with Belozeviç’s penalty kick goal at 35th minute.

Slavija, which was the main candidate to relegate to ower kleague in the first half of last season, but who performed an excellent second half seems to continue her form in tghis season as well. Having the same poimt with Zeljo and Sarajevo, because of lower goal difference, Slavija is at 3rd place in the table. This week, they had a modest 1-0 home victory against Zvijezda by Vidiç’s goal at 35th minute.

The ranks at the first three places are likely to change after next week’s match between Zeljo and Slavija in Grbavica.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 4th week are as follow:

GOŞK Gabela: 2 – Zeljeznicar: 3

Olimpik Sarajevo: 0 – FK Sarajevo: 1

FK Slavija: 1 – Zvijezda Gradacac: 0

Zrinjski Mostar: 1 – Borac Banja Luka: 0

Çelik Zenica: 2 – Şiroki Brijeg: 1

Rudar Prijedor: 3 – Leotar Trebinje: 1

Gradina Srebrenik: 1 – Velez Mostar: 3

Radnik Bijeljina: 2 – NK Travnik: 2

Standings of the teams by the end of 4th week:

(source: www.nfsbih.ba)

Next Week’s Schedule (Week 4: September 1-2):

Borac – Radnik

Sarajevo – GOŞK

Zvijezda – Zrinjski

Şiroki Brijeg – Prijedor

Travnik – Çelik

Velez – Olimpik

Leotar – Gradina

Zeljo - Slavija

FK NOVI PAZAR

Novi Pazar had a good start against Red Star an deven was beter than the guest team for a while where ex-Partizan player, Bogunovic scıred at 28th. However, just 10 minutes afterwards, Red Star’s Kasalica scored the draw goal for Red Star.

The strong guest team was dominating the second half and scored the victorous goal at 52 by Milunovic and leaving the pitch victorous.

Novi Pazar, occupying the leadership rank in the first week is now at 7th above three more teams who share the same points: Red Star, Sloboda, Radniçki Niş. Novi Pazar will play against Smederovo in away match next week.

Standings of the teams in Serbian Prva Liga by the end of 3rd week:

 (Source: www. utakmica.rs)

BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 23rd WEEK

(Click here for the original Turkish text in Haber Boşnak, published April 17, 2012.)

(17 Nisan 2012 tarihinde Haber Boşnak'ta yayınlanan özgün metin için buraya tıklayınız)


By the end of the eight matches of the second half of the season, it seems that the top of the Bosnian Super League is settled to a certain degree. Struggle for title continues between Zeljo and Şiroki Brijeg, where Zeljo has an advantage of seven points difference. The victory of both teams in 23rd Week did neither change the rank nor the point difference.

The interesting coincidence in this week was that, leader Zeljo played with 4th Borac, while 2nd Şiroki Brijeg played with FK Sarajevo. Those keeping the title struggle were the victorious, where Borac and Sarajevo struggling for European cups were the losers. If it happened vice versa, the struggle for the title would be warmed a bit. At least there would be three candidates for the runner-up.  

The gap between struggle for title and struggle for European cup did relatively become wider. Moreover, stable and constant Olimpik Sarajevo having home victory over Sloboda Tuzla, and spectacular home 4-2 victory of Zrinjski against GOŞK made both teams to be candidate for the struggle to be representing Bosnia in UEFA championship.

The relegation pot is still hot. Slavija, working hard to stay in Premier League is still under the red line, but there is only one point difference with Sloboda and GOŞK. Slavija got three points after an away victory against Rudar Prijedor, another team from Republika Srpska (like Slavija), and it seems Rudar, who has a relatively easy standing probably did not make the things difficult for Slavija.

Both GOŞK and Sloboda will have a difficult week, while Slavija will play at home against Travnik, another team who does not have claim for anything. On the other hand, Sloboda will host Zeljeznicar. That means, after the matches of 24th week, Slavija’s and Sloboda’s standings may be switched: Slavija above the red line, and Sloboda under. However, we have to keep in mind that Sloboda had played the most difficult matches and the rest of the fixture is slightly easy for Tuzla team.

  

Zeljo is again victorious over Borac after the third match they played this season. Borac and Zeljo were seeded in the Kup BiH as well. Zeljo, step by step on the way to the title, had a modest victory by Adiloviç’s goal at 31st minute. 

Zeljo’s scorer Adilovic (Photo: Oslobodjenje)

Şiroki Brijeg had a clear victory over FK Sarajevo by the opening goal of Vagner and later on two goals of the Argentinean star Varea. The capital city team replied by Husejnovic’s honor goal.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 23rd week are as follow:

Zvijezda Gradaçac: 2 – Çelik Zenica: 1

Zeljeznicar: 1 – Borac Banja Luka: 0

Olimpik Sarajevo: 2 – Sloboda Tuzla: 0

Zrinjski Mostar: 4 – GOŞK Gabela: 2

NK Travnik: 3 – Velez Mostar: 2

Rudar Prijedor: 0 – Slavija: 1

Şiroki Brijeg: 3 – Sarajevo: 1

Leotar: 1 – Kozara: 0

Standings of the teams by the end of 23rd week:

(Source: www.nfsbih.ba)

Next Week’s Schedule (Week 24: April, 28-29):

Çelik – Leotar

Kozara – Şiroki Brijeg

Sarajevo – Rudar

Slavija – Travnik

Velez – Zrinjski (Mostar Derby)

GOŞK – Olimpik

Sloboda – Zeljo

Borac - Zvijezda

FK NOVI PAZAR

After a difficult three weeks, Novi Pazar succeeded to stay above the red line. In this period, Novi Pazar’s away victory against Borac was a victory of six points!

As expected, Novi Pazar had an away 3-1 defeat against Radniçka, currently the third rank in Jelen Super Liga. However, the real surprise was Borac’s home 2-0 defeat by OFK Beograd. Last week, I had mentioned about OFK’s habit to lose against teams on relegation pot. The Beograd team ashamed us this week and the three points difference between Borac and Novi Pazar remained the same. Borça, who had victory against OFK last week, had a disastrous 4-0 defeat against Jagodina.

Javor, having victory against Rad, had increased the point difference with Novi Pazar to five points, and with Borac eight points and seems to be in a safer standing.

Metalac, who recently gave positive signals showing the wish to stay in Super Liga, had an important match against Hajduk. However, the 3-1 home defeat against Hajduk destroyed the hopes. On the other side, Hajduk, like Javor, seems to be in a safer standing as well.

Standing of the teams in Serbian Jelen Super League by 25th week:

(Source: www. utakmica.rs)

In this context, since Metalac can be regarded as the first team to be relegated, the question is “Who will be the second team?” Until last week, there were five candidates, but Hajduk and Javor are no longer in this group. Currently, Borac, Novi Pazar and BSK Borça are three candidates. However, we have to keep it in mind that Novi Pazar will play at home in the following two weeks.

Today (April 25, Wednesday), Jelen Super Liga’s 26th week’s scheduled matches will be played and three candidates will play against those rivals:

Jagodina – Borac

Novi Pazar – Metalac

Partizan – Borça

It is quite difficult for Borac and BSK Borça to have some points. On the other side, Novi Pazar is likely to have a home victory against Metalac. If Metalac have had a victory over Hajduk last week, it could be a difficult match for Novi Pazar as well. However, Novi Pazar’s victory will not be surprise. Considering those probabilities, the bottom of Super Liga may have such kind a view:

13. Novi Pazar (24 points)

14. Borça (24 points)

15. Borac (18 points)

16. Metalac (14 points)

BOSNIAN PREMIER LEAGUE 20th WEEK

(Click here for the original Turkish text in Haber Boşnak, published April 9, 2012.)
(9 Nisan 2012 tarihinde Haber Boşnak'ta yayınlanan özgün metin için buraya tıklayınız)

Half of the eight matches played this week in Bosnian Premier League was draw and three of them were 1-1. Both teams from capoital city, Sarajevo and Zeljeznicar got only one point in this week’s matches.

Zeljeznicar had also lost two points against Zrinjski in away match in Mostar last week, despite a very succesfull start of the second half of the season, not only by the magnificient matches, but also by the surprise results of the rivals which made them to catch the leader and even make a gap of 8 points between them and the runner up. This week, they could not avoid a point loss with a result of 0-0 against Olimpik Sarajevo, one of the crabby teams of Bosnia. Irfan Fejziç was surely the man of the match who bravely supported his gate during the match which was played under heavy rain and with only 3000 supporters of Zeljo. (Photo: Dnevni Avaz)

Thus the point gap between Zeljo and Şiroki Brijeg dropped to four.

Another crabby score was in Zenica. Zenica’s Çelik team loves to be crabby against Sarajevo teams. Sarajevo, simply unsuccessful in the second half of the season was obliged to get three points for a claim in championship struggle. However, they could not avoid Smriko’s goal at 27th minute. They replied with Suljiç at 57th minute. But, they lost the third place to Borac who defetaed Travnik in a home match with an easy score of 1-1.

We also have to mention that Çelik will be playing against Zeljo as their other bloody rival from the capital next week.

It was expected that GOŞK Gabela, without a chance in the championship struggle and being –at least currently- away from dropline would not be compelling Şiroki Brijeg a lot and Şiroki Brijeg needed a sure victory to reduce the gap between them and the leader. However, the host team scored a goal at 27 by Tomiç. It is a bit difficult to score against Şiroki Brijeg, who had seen only 8 goals in their nets until now. In addition to that, it was not expected from the second least scorer team of the league with only 12 goals. Şiroki Brijeg, good in defence, but not that good in offence with the least goals scored among the other teams in the championship struggle surprised us by replying two goals: Varea’s at 39th and Misiç’s at 82th minutes.

The critical match of next week is between Zrinjski and Borac. Borac will likely to loose points against Zrinjski who will play with the love of “Şiroki Brijeg”. In this situation, only two candidates of champion will be left: Şiroki Brijeg and Zeljeznicar.

It seems, the bottom of the league is a bit warmed up this week. Currently there are five teams from Republika Srpska (RS) and four of them occupies the bottom four ranks of the standing table. That is to say, probably both of the teams which will drop will be from RS and since only one team from RS will be promoted to Premier League, there will be only four teams representing RS next season. Slavija, who had stuck in the bottom of the league had defeated Kozara and equalized the points with Kozara. If they will be able to defeat Leotar in away match next week, surprisingly the team who was stuck at the bottom since the beginning of the season will be able to jump through the relegation line. But, one should keep in mind that it is not that easy in Bosnian football to beat host team.

The results of the matches played in the Bosnian Premier League in the 20th week is as follow:
Çelik Zenica: 1 – FK Sarajevo: 1
FK Slavija: 2 – FK Kozara: 1
Velez Mostar: 1 – Leotar Trebinje: 1
GOŞK Gabela: 1 – Şiroki Brijeg: 2
Sloboda Tuzla: 1 – Rudar Prijedor: 2
Borac Banja Luka: 1 – NK Travnik: 0
Zvijezda Gradaçac: 1 – Zrinjski Mostar: 1
Zeljeznicar: 0 – Olimpik Sarajevo: 0


Standings of the teams by the end of 20th week:



Top scorers
Adiloviç (Zeljo): 13 goals
Haskiç (Sarajevo), Wagner Marjanoviç (Zrinjski), Kajkut (Borac): 7 goals
Wagner (Şiroki Brijeg), Zeba (Zeljo), Obuça (Sarajevo): 6 goals

Next week’s schedule:
Zeljeznicar – Çelik
Olimpik – Zvijezda
Zrinjski – Borac
Travnik – Sloboda
Rudar – GOŞK
Şiroki – Velez
Leotar – Slavija
Kozara - Sarajevo


FK NOVİ PAZAR
FK NOVİ PAZAR
Novi Pazar had a surprising result this week. Probably, the 2-0 away victory against Borac was the best welcome to Bekvalac, the fresh trainer of Novi Pazar in his first match. )He was previously the third trainer.)

On the other hand, the expectations of Novi Pazar from the other matches partly came true. Both Javor – Jagodina and Radniçki 1923 – Hajduk matches were finished with the same result: 0 – 0. On the other side BSK Borça lost home match against Sloboda Uzice 2-0 which can be a slightly surprising score. Thus, as I have mentioned three days ago, the fault line at the bottom part of Jelen Super Liga is still existing, but BSK Borça is now added to the lower part with Borac and Novi Pazar.

Above all, a difficult home match for Novi Pazar against Red Star awaits for next week.

Next week’s schedule for the teams at the bottom of the league is as follow:
Sloboda – Borac
Hajduk – Vojvodina
Partizan – Javor

After the 5-0 defeat by Red Star, we re-consider Metalac again as the team who will relegate from the Super League. Thus, our eyes are on those 3+2 teams.

Looking objectively, it seems impossible for Novi Pazar to steal some points from Red Star this weeks. But, we cannot know if the subjective reality will surprise us. There is also probability that Borac may turn back to home with points from Uzice. If they will come with a victory, Novi Pazar may again be under the red line.

I do not think that Hajduk will gain some points from the match against Vojvodina. Javor will also probably be defetaed easily by Partizan.

Considering those options, this week which we identify as a difficult week for Novi Pazar may not be that much difficult looking beyond the matches of the rival teams in the relegation basket. At least, there is a probability that the rankings in the standing table be the same next Sunday evening.


(Source: www.utakmica.rs)