Today, Vojvodina will play the third friendly match in the preparations in Slovenia. At 6 pm, at the stadium in Slovenske Konjice, the rival of the red and whites will be Koper from the city of the same name, which is the current vice-champion of their country.
Koper was founded back in 1920 under the name Circolo Sportivo Capodistria, and it was founded by local students, workers and fishermen. During its history, Koper has changed its name several times and sometimes even merged with other clubs from this place, and the current name was given in 2002. After that, it changed its name again to Anet Koper and Luka Koper, only to take over the name Koper again in 2017.
This club has won eight trophies in its history so far, considering that its showcases are adorned with one champion title, five Cups and two Slovenian Super Cups. Koper is one of the five Slovenian clubs that managed to win all three domestic competitions.
What is interesting about this club is the period between 2004 and 2006, considering that it was experiencing practically the same fate as Vojvodina at that time. Namely, in that period, the club was practically on the verge of closing down, but it was saved from that by the fans who took over the majority in the Assembly of the club and set up a new management, under which the club took an upward trajectory. In the 2005/06 season, the management of Koper was taken over by Milan Mandarić, who paid off all the debts that the club had at that time.
Last season, Koper took second place in the Slovenian championship, although it fought with Maribor for the championship title until the last round. The second place enabled Koper to play in the second round of qualifications for the Conference League in the upcoming season, in which it will meet Vaduz from Liechtenstein.
Koper plays at the Bonifika stadium with a capacity of 4,047 seats and plays at home in yellow and blue, and away in black and white. The coach of the team is 42-year-old Slovenian Zoran Zeljković, who has a team at his disposal whose value is estimated at around 5.88 million euros. In addition to domestic players, his team currently consists of six other players from Croatia, two from Jamaica and one each from Portugal, Nigeria and Gambia.
As for the team of Vojvodina, in relation to the match against Maritsa, the red and whites are now stronger for Mladen Devetak and Mamadou Traore, and in the meantime, Yves Baraye and Milan Lazarević joined the team, so it remains to be seen if any of them will get a chance to play in this match. In the previous two games, coach Rastavac gave a chance to two different lineups to play 45 minutes each, but it is expected that today they will not share the minutes equally.
The match will be broadcast live by Arena premium 1 and Novosadska TV, and the match can also be watched on the Youtube channel of FK Vojvodina via the link:
