The coach of Vojvodina FC, Nenad Lalatović congratulated his players on the victory against OFK Beograd and said that he is expecting an even bigger turnup at Karađorđe stadium as the season progresses.

Vojvodina defeated OFK Beograd in the 13th round of Mozzart Bet Super league of Serbia with the result 2:1 thanks to the goals of Njegoš Petrović and Andrija Radulović.

  • I would like to congratulate both teams on the game they showed, and first of all to congratulate my players who gave their best during the entire 90 minutes. I would like to thank our fans for coming in such large numbers. I had said before the match that I wouldn’t like them to support us from their homes, in front of TVs or from beds, cafes, but to come to the stadium to cheer us on. This today was phenomenal, and I certainly hope that there will be even more fans at each next game, because with them it is easier to win and be among the first three teams in Serbia. Vojvodina has to be among the top three teams in Serbia, because that makes it easier to enter the group stage of European competitions. That is my biggest desire, and of course to play the Cup finale. All that is far away…I am now very emotional, I returned to Karađorđe after 3 years. There is no one happier than me for returning to Karađorđe with a victory. Of course, the players did what I asked of them. We were blocked by that first goal after 40 seconds. When I saw the ball entering the net, I almost had a heart attack. But I knew, and I saw the desire in my players. We trained well during the week, and I really knew. There was a great energy on the pitch, in the dressing room, and I saw it at training sessions. Especially today when it began, I saw in their eyes that they wanted it, and that we would win. I was not scared for a moment. And as you say, we returned to the match, drew, overturned the result, and took the lead of 2:1, and after that we could have scored a few more goals. I don’t know if OFK had any other serious chances besides that one goal. What I imagined; the players fulfilled. What was very important today – we played very well behind our backs. We didn’t wait for someone else to take the ball for us, but we played in both directions. We filled the penalty area well after taken balls, and that is what we had been doing during the weeks of trainings, and what I saw my team was missing. I am more than happy and satisfied, but I would like to say, this is just my first victory since I came back. I am sorry that it wasn’t a victory in Ub…We could have overturned the result there. We had 2 100% chances. From the possible 6 points, we took 4, and I hope that we will continue winning from now on. Vojvodina has a great team, and once again I would like to thank our fans for coming in large numbers. We have the Cup match on Wednesday, against Sremska Mitrovica, and on Saturday from 6 pm against the Red Star at Marakana – Lalatović said.

The match started similarly like against Novi Pazar. Once again, a goal was received very early on in the game, but this time Vojvodine quickly drew and restarted the game.

  • When we received the goal, it took them 10 minutes to come out of the shock. All the time I was cheering them on while leading the game. As the game went on, you could see the amazing energy on the pitch, thanks to our fans of course, who supported us from the stands. Those are the players of Vojvodina. I led many matches as the coach here in two turns, and overturned the result. I was convinced that we would succeed once again. That is not my credit, but the credit of my players. They believed that they could change the result, they succeeded and won against a great team of OFK Beograd, and it was a deserved victory, it could have been even better. I value OFK Beograd and respect them, they are a club where I used to play, and I wish them all the best.

 

The journalists were also interested in the new dressing style of the coach Lalatović who chose to wear a suit for this match at Karađorđe.

  • I always have to have something new. I like to wear suits; I got lazy in the last couple of years. I love to very suits, and I will try to wear them more often.

 

  • I am not pleased that we received a goal. I said that my team has to win without receiving goals. You saw how we received the goal against Ub, we gave it to ourselves. The attacker ran in between my two players, and scored a goal in the 40th That should never happen. That is the only segment of the game which I am not satisfied with, because we received a goal easily, and then started chasing the result. If we correct that in the future, I will be entirely pleased. That is the only remark I would give my players.

 

The decision about the penalty being shot by Andrija Radulović was made by the head of staff himself.

  • Yes, of course. Two players wanted to perform the penalty before him. It was my decision. I said that Radulović has to perform it, and he did. There needs to be discipline in the team.

 

The team showed mental stability despite the early goal. All that before the difficult scheduled ahead of us.

  • It is always easier after a victory. Of course, we have a difficult schedule. We have the Cup match, which is always suspenseful and there is no relaxing there. Then we are playing against the Red Star, and we have two matches at home. We will play against the club where I made excellent results, and was the third team on the scoreboard…Where I had six victories at seven matches. That is the team of Mladost from Lučani. It will be an emotional game for me, because I spent some nice moments there, and I managed to return to Vojvodina just because I had such good results with Mladost. If I didn’t have such results, I don’t believe that I would be here. It was God’s will. I returned to my home, I returned where I belong, and I hope that I will stay here for a longer time – Lalatović concluded.