In the 16th round of Prva Liga Telemach, Olimpija traveled to Maribor for an away match. The second Eternal Derby of the season at Ljudski vrt ended in a draw, with one goal in each net. The hosts took the lead through Benjamin Tetteh in the 21st minute, which was also the final score of the first half. In the second half, the Dragons pushed hard, which paid off in the 53rd minute. Diga sent a useful cross into the penalty area with his left foot, where Ivan Durdov found himself perfectly positioned and headed in his 10th goal of the season. Olimpija’s strong pressure for a win was cut short by Ahmet Muhamedbegović’s second yellow card, so the Dragons returned from Slovenia’s third-largest stadium with only one point.
Marko Brest described the match to the media, saying: “We started the match poorly, but that changed around the 25th minute of the first half when we became significantly better, especially in ball possession. We continued this way in the second half and were the better opponent. Unfortunately, the red card disrupted us somewhat, and we couldn’t secure the win. In the end, I would say both teams can be satisfied with a point.”
Coach Federico Bessone also addressed the poor start and the Dragons’ subsequent response: “We didn’t change anything at halftime. We had a good plan from the start, but we didn’t execute it properly. We knew they would press us from wide positions, so we wanted our full-backs to stay high. We played against a quality opponent, but after conceding, we reacted excellently and controlled the game well. This rewarded us with an early goal in the second half, but with a man down, we couldn’t seriously fight for all three points until the end.”
Olimpija now has two home matches ahead. In the league, Radomlje will visit Stožice on Saturday at 5:30 PM, followed by an extremely important cup match against Celje for the Dragons on Thursday, December 4, at 6:00 PM. Tickets for both remaining home matches of this calendar year can be found at shop.nkolimpija.si and in our club store.
