Today, Vojvodina will play the second friendly match in the preparations in Slovenia. At the Ljudski vrt stadium in Maribor, the rival of the red and whites will be the home team of the same name and also the largest Slovenian club, and the match will start at 7 pm, instead of the previously planned 6 pm.
Maribor was founded in 1960 as a continuation of the tradition of the 1st SSK Maribor, founded in 1919, which then changed its name twice, and in the summer of 1960 it had to be disbanded after an affair with food poisoning. After the club was re-established only a few months later, from the 1962/63 season, and for the next five years, Maribor competed in the second league of the former SFRY, after which it won a place in the First Federal League.
In the First Federal League, Maribor participated until 1976, when it returned to the second league, and never after that was it a participant in the highest rank of Yugoslav football. Moreover, in 1981, Maribor was relegated to the third league due to the so-called the “ball” affair.
However, since 1991 and the disintegration of the SFRY, Maribor has been a regular participant in the First League of Slovenia, the highest rank of Slovenian football, and according to the results it has achieved, it can definitely be considered the most successful club in this country. So far, Maribor has been the champion of Slovenia 15 times, won the National Cup nine times and participated in the group stage of the Champions League and Europa League three times.
Last season, Maribor took second place in the First League of Slovenia, and lost the title in a truly incredible way: with a defeat at home in the last round with a score of 1-3 from the current champion Mura, which won the title thanks to a better goal difference, considering that even a 1-2 defeat would leave Maribor in first place in the table at the end of the season. In the upcoming season, Maribor will compete in the newly formed Conference League, where its rival in the first round of qualifications will be Urartu from Armenia.
The Ljudski vrt stadium, where today’s match will be played, has a capacity of 12,994 seats, and Maribor, as the host, plays in completely purple, while it plays away in yellow and white equipment. The coach of Maribor is 38-year-old Slovenian Simon Rozman, who has a team at his disposal whose value is estimated at 11.8 million euros. In addition to domestic players, the Maribor team also includes eight foreigners, two of whom come from Croatia and Montenegro and one each from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Argentina, Romania and Brazil.
In their history, Vojvodina and Maribor have played 12 official mutual matches, and the Old Lady is more successful with five wins, five draws and two defeats, with a goal difference of 12-9. The last competitive match, the two teams played in the 1986/87 season in the then Yugoslav Second Federal League – West, when Maribor won at home with a score of 2-0.
After that, Maribor and Vojvodina met twice more in friendly matches during the winter preparations in Turkey, and the last time it happened was last year, when the Slovenian club won 3-2.
As for today’s match, the Manager of Vojvodina, Slavoljub Đorđević, will not be able to count on Miljan Vukadinović and Mihajlo Nešković, who returned to Novi Sad yesterday due to injuries. Also, considering that he has just recovered from a minor injury, Aleksandar Busnić will probably not play today.
The match between Maribor and Vojvodina will be broadcast live on Novosadska TV, as well as on the Youtube channel of FK Vojvodina via the link:
