Riera: I’ve seen a lot of negative comments

Last weekend’s desperate performance at CSKA – Bravo won 6:1 – according to Elichnik, left no major consequences: “Things like that don’t get us off track. I try not to think too much about defeats. We spend a day or two after the game analyzing the defeat, and then we look forward.« 

For Olimpija, despite the humiliation suffered by CSKA, the view of the standings remains encouraging. They have 6 points ahead of Cooper, 8 ahead of Selji, and 13 ahead of Maribor. The national champions will have to win on Saturday in Stožice (match starts at 8:15pm) if they want to have a realistic chance of winning. The title, after not taking advantage of the last Olimpija vouchers at the weekend, with Koper taking three points from Ljudski vrt.

Tradition has been on the side of Olimpija in the last period, with Maribor winning only once in their last 11 matches. This season, the two teams met in the fourth round, when the score was 0: 2 in Maribor. What has changed for Violet since then? Elsnik: « They changed the coach, and some new players also arrived, including Josip Ilicic, who is certainly very welcome in the first league. But I don’t see any major differences, the players are the same. In the derby, the most important thing is who wants to win the most.« 

There is no secret between the two teams. « They will hardly surprise us. Even our coach (Albert Riera) said we all watch Maribor and know it well. It won’t be difficult for him to prepare for us either. » Are there any provocations from the opposite side before the derby, considering that Ilshnik is from Stagerk? « I’ve been here for so long that this has happened ten times. And it usually didn’t end well for those who provoked it either.« 

Olympia started the season brilliantly, giving no points in the first eight rounds, then stopped at Selge (4:3). « At the time, we were chasing the unbeaten record, but at the same time we knew that defeat would have to come sooner or later. But after Selji, we quickly responded to Mora (2:3). So far, I expect us to beat Maribor and respond to the defeat at CSKA.« 

the Dragon The goalkeeper can also help on Saturday Matvey Fedovsk. « I hope he plays, but that’s the coach’s decision. At the beginning of the season, he showed an unrealistic performance and the whole team feels more confident when he is in goal. But I must stress that Pintul has also driven well in many games, » He said Mustafa NokicOlimpia’s top scorer this season with six goals.

Riera: We think about defense and attack, but the most important thing is defense

Albert Riera He looked back a bit at Sunday’s defeat to Bravo, and then had an hour and 45 minute encounter with the guys. And he repeated what he said right after the match, that Olimpica was not the best team in the world before, but now it’s not the worst either.

“In 11 games, I can even say 12, we were superior to our opponents. Before the season, no one thought we would be so successful, but it happened. But a bad game can also happen. I warned some time ago that we would score and lose, even better. Clubs in the world score bad matches. We are humans, not robots or machines. Sometimes you have to lose to learn from defeat. When you just win, sometimes you don’t focus enough on weaknesses or things that are worse or worse. »

After the defeat in the Ljubljana derby, he hinted that he could make some changes in the upcoming matches. « That’s right, I’ll change a few things, but I can’t tell you which ones. Basically so we don’t concede as many goals as we’ve had in the last games. But we also have to score them. We’re thinking about both parts, but first we have to think about defence. Any goal in the first eight games, that was the key to success. When you build a building, you start from the first floor, not the tenth. If you are well organized, superior and have the ball, the opponent punishes you severely because his chances are less. Our idea of ​​the game is to defend with the ball. After defeat Last, I couldn’t blame the players’ approach in any way, but the way we played. »

« For the coach, the week before the derby is the easiest »

What kind of discount is he expecting on Saturday? « I expect Maribor to play as they did in the last five matches. I’m sure they won’t change anything, because their results, apart from the last meeting, are not bad. We already played against them. Think about how to attack them. Believe me, for the coach, the week before the derby. It is the easiest. Psychologically, the players themselves are already ready and focused on the match.”

Rera called for a good attendance at the press conference to emphasize the positive qualities of the Slovenian League. “I would like to see this room very full before every game. Every week we prepare ourselves in the same way, no matter if we play against Bravo, Gorica, Tabor or Maribor. I know it is a derby, but we will do help football and raise the Slovenian League to a higher level. If we all care about football.Only in football and not in other things like what happened in the Maribor-Cooper match.This is just wasting time and giving importance to such things and forgetting what football is about.Most of the clubs in the league have young teams,anyone can He plays a bad game. We have to respect and support the players, and that goes for all the teams. This will do this league, the teams, the players and the coaches a great service. I’ve seen a lot of negative comments. »