Vojvodina footballers will play their second game today at the preparations in Belek. At 3:30 pm Serbian time, the red and whites’ rival on the pitch of the Maxx Royal sports center will be Rapid from Vienna, Austria’s biggest and most trophy club, which is also on preparations in Turkey.
Rapid was founded back in 1899 and has won as many as 50 trophies in its rich history, including 32 Austrian league titles, 14 Austrian Cups, 2 Mitropa Cups, as well as one league title and the Cup of Germany, since this club, after the Anchlus and during the Second World War, participated in competitions under the auspices of the German Football Association. Last season, Rapid took seventh place in the Austrian league standings and is therefore not participating in Europe this season, while currently it holds the third place in the domestic league.
Vojvodina and Rapid have already played four official matches among each other, meeting for the first time in the semi-finals of the former Mitropa Cup in the 1956/57 season. Vojvodina then won 4-1 at home and, despite defeat in the rematch by 3-0, reached the finals of this competition, where it was later defeated by the then powerful Hungarian Vasas. It was a great generation of Vojvodina football players, led by Vujadin Boškov, Todor Veselinović, Žarko Nikolić, Zdravko Rajkov, Aleksandar Ivoš, Dobroslav and Radomir Krstić, Novak Roganović, Lazar Vasić and others, who became Yugoslav runner-up that season.
However, the memory of matches between Vojvodina and Rapid in the third qualifying round for the Europa League in the 2012/13 season is much more recent. In Novi Sad, the red and whites then beat a reputable opponent by a score of 2-1, with goals by Aboubakar Oumarou and Milan Bojović, and they received the goal in the sixth minute of injury time. In Vienna, Vojvodina successfully resisted the home team, even though from 83rd minute it had a player less on the pitch due to Vladan Pavlović’s red card. In the last minute of the match, the referee awarded a very debatable penalty to the home side, from which Rapid took the lead. Later in injury time, when even the goalkeeper Supić went to attack, the Austrian team scored another goal from the counter-attack and went through witht the final result 2:0.
The current Rapid coach, an Austrian Dietmar Kühbauer, has a team whose total value is estimated at 32.15 million euros, and in addition to domestic players, there are also one player from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Greece, Japan, as well as former right back of Red Star and national team of Montenegro Filip Stojković.
The Manager of Vojvodina Nenad Lalatović today will probably again give the opportunity to play to almost all players.
