CL 2nd qual. Round Maribor v Zeljeznicar EL 1st qual. Round Borac Banja Luka v Celik Niksic FK Sarajevo v Hibernians EL 2nd qual. Round Metalurg Donetsk v Borac Banja Luka/Celik Niksic Levski Sofia v FK Sarajevo/Hibernians Siroki Brijeg v St. Patricks Athletic/Vestmannaeyvjar What a great draw! Surely all of our clubs will make it to at least the 3rd qualifying round this year.
Maribor is fvcking good guys. They'll kill Zeljo if Fajic is still there. Hibernians is totally beatable for Sarajevo but Levski Sofia has raped Bosnian clubs in the past... really Sarajevo/Zeljo got the worst draws, but we'll probably fare better then Borac or Siroki.
Maribor isn't even half as good as Zeljeznicar, I predict a thrashing from Zeljo. This is too easy for them. Levski Sofia used to be strong, they are average these days. Sarajevo should go through. Borac and Siroki obviously going to the third qualifying round this time. Everyone should do well in Europe this year or we should just cancel the league.
Dude are you kidding me? Half their players have at least one cap for the Slovenian national team. I get that they're not a superpower, but they're definitely not pushovers. I'd say our starting line-up is slightly better than theirs (I may be biased), but they definitely have a decent team. Their budget is a tad bigger than ours. In 2010, 3 of their players moved to Palermo (Ilicic, Bacinovic, Andjelkovic), 2 players went to Nacional in Portugal.. I believe 4 of these 5 guys are starters for their clubs. We played a friendly against them last year (3-3):
we'll smash them, trust. It's a Slovenian team. They don't take footballing nearly as seriously as we do. They're more professional yeah, but it would be sad if we can't take out a Slovenian side.
Zeljo's team is FAR superior. Antolovic < J. Handanovic B. Colic > Mejac Kerla > Arghus Bogicevic > Rajcevic Kvesic > Viler Svraka > Filipovic Zolotic < Mertelj Selimovic > Mezga Zeba > Beric Bekric > Ibraimi Adilovic > Velikonja If they don't pound this Maribor team, pathetic.
I'll write more later but I can tell you this - the Zlovenians will shit their pants when they come to Sarajevo. Our fans are going to be amazing as usual. They're losing in Sarajevo, don't know by how much and how the away fixture will go but they're losing in Sarajevo.
I liked our draws for the CL and EL qualifying. Here are my predictions for the qualifiers. FK Željezničar vs. NK Maribor (CL Second Round Qualifying)--- This, in my opinion, will be the toughest match-up of all our Europe representatives. Maribor, a very good team out of Slovenia, will get home soil in the first leg. They have some very nice fans, not as good as Željezničar´s, but still something to appreciate. They have a Brazilian captain named Marcos Magno Morales Tavares. He scored 55 times for Maribor since 2008. Another nice player for Maribor is their goalkeeper, Jasmin Handanović. He is very experienced, so Željo will not get any freebies in this match-up. I expect an aggregate score of 2-1, Željo advances. Borac Banja Luka vs. Čelik Nikšič (EL First Round Qualifying) --- This is actually going to be the easiest opponent from all of our BiH teams in EL or CL. Čelik is a second-league team out of Crna Gora who has never made it to the first division. They did win the cup in the 2011-12 season, so they do have some experience in winning knockout fixtures. Still nothing to worry about for Borac, who have recently acquired for U19 and U21 player in Jovica Stokić. He should be a nice addition to the squad, and can help out in Borac´s path to qualifying for Europa League 2012-13. My prediction is that Borac advances on a 3-0 aggregate score. FK Sarajevo vs. Hiberniens F.C. (EL First Round Qualifying) --- Another easy play-off for a Bosnian team. Hibernians should not give Sarajevo a scare too much, despite finishing second in the Maltese Premier League. Sarajevo should handle them with relative ease, defeating them 3-1 on aggregate. I think Said Husejinović will provide a nice boost in Sarajevo´s midfield specifically in this play-off. NK Široki Brijeg vs. ??? (EL Second Round Qualifying) --- This will likely be the second toughest team a Bosnian club could face in the qualifiers. Široki will either get to play St. Patrick´s Athletic from Ireland or IBV from Iceland. The same teams actually faced each other last season in EL qualifying first round and St. Patrick´s Athletic won 2-1. Neither are pushovers, and I actually think this is going to be the first of our teams to lose in the their first play-off. I say it will be 2-1 for St. Patrick´s AThletic (I think they repeat from last season and defeat IBV). I really hope that at least one of our teams can qualify for the group stage this time around and represent Bosna. Good luck to all of our teams in their paths to the Champions League and Europa League!
Siroki to lose to an Irish club? Can't see it, the Irish league is even worse than our own league and Siroki have a good defence this time unlike last year. I just think there are people overrating Maribor's chances in here a little bit, probably because of our clubs' poor performances in the CL in recent years, but Zeljo surely are going to go through rather comfortably.
St. Patricks Athletic is no pushover, like I said. They recently got a new manager completely doing a makeover job of the squad. In the first six games under the Liam Buckley´s reign, they went unbeaten. And Maribor were Slovenian champions, they know how to win. Both teams will be tough competition for our clubs.
But they were unbeaten in the Irish league, one of the worst in Europe. That's not much of an accomplishment to say that they would beat Siroki Brijeg who is 5x stronger now than they were last year in Europe. It will be an easy tie for Siroki whoever they meet. Maribor is an ok team but I can't see how they will be a tough team for Zeljo to beat.
Mariborčani u strahu? Samo 650 karata za Željine navijače NK Maribor protivnik je sarajevskog Željezničara u drugom pretkolu Lige prvaka Bez neutralnih navijača Piše: SportCentar 01.07.2012 u 18:12 sati. NK Maribor protivnik je sarajevskog Željezničara u drugom pretkolu Lige prvaka, a prvi susret odigrat će se na stadionu Ljudski vrt u Mariboru 18. jula. Mariborčani su odlučili poštovati pravila UEFA, te će tako navijačima sarajevskog kluba omogućiti samo 650 karata, odnosno 5% kapaciteta stadiona Ljudski vrt. Ostatak od 12.000 ulaznica neće moći kupovati navijači iz Bosne i Hercegovine, već samo državljani Slovenije. Zanimljivo, Slovenci su zabranili unošenje svih obilježja Željezničara izvan gostujućeg sektora. Treba napomenuti da će Željini navijači svoje ulaznice moći kupiti samo u Sarajevu, osim u slučaju da posjeduju slovenski pasoš. Čelnici ova dva kluba sutra će dogovoriti tačne detalje oko ulaznica za oba susreta.
Wow, I bet those 650 will be louder than the rest of the crowd. Although, I am sure there some Bosnians in Slovenia who root for Željo, so I would say there will be 800 Maniacs at the game on July 5th.
^ It's July 17th but I agree with your point. Maribor sucks to be honest, Zeljo will ease through to the next round.
Any predictions? Maribor 2-1 Zeljeznicar Zeljeznicar 3-1 Maribor Borac Banja Luka 2-0 Celik Celik 0-1 Borac Banja Luka Sarajevo 4-0 Hibernians Hibernians 1-3 Sarajevo
I hope Zeljo can get to group stages for the UCL, as a Pitar I don't like Zeljo but we desperately need a team to represent.
Maribor 1-2 Zeljeznicar Zeljeznicar 2-0 Maribor Borac Banja Luka 3-1 Celik Niksic Celik Niksic 2-1 Borac Banja Luka FK Sarajevo 4-0 Hibernians Hibernians 1-2 FK Sarajevo
Maribor 1 - 1 Zeljeznicar Zeljeznicar 2 - 1 Maribor Borac 2 - 0 Celik Celik 1 -1 Borac Sarajevo 3 - 0 Hibernians Hibernians 1 - 2 Sarajevo