Partizan is away to Crvena Zvezda on Sunday (4pm CET kick-off) as part of Mozzart Bet Serbian Super Liga round 31 (play-off round 1) fixtures. This is 176th edition of Eternal Belgrade derby game.
H2H (last six)
CZ 3, Partizan 1, Drawn 3. Gd: 13-9, CZ.
TEAM NEWS
Ibrahim Zubairu suffered a serious tibia injury last weekend which will keep him sidelined for the rest of the season. Young-jun Goh twisted his joint again while Aleksandar Scekic and Stefan Kovac are back in contention after missing out on the last few games due to their respective injuries.
Partizan boss Srdjan Blagojevic ahead of the derby game:
-To be fair, there`s no competitive edge to this match but we will enter this derby with the same ambitions we always have – Partizan has to go for a win regardless of all the problems we currently have. Moreover, you can`t expect anyone to enter such a game in a relaxed mood or not taking this encounter seriously. I have no doubts it will be a good game of football, regardless of the lack of traditional tension among the fans or inside the clubs before this match.
Home team is favourite to win this game as they were two months ago when we played each other. They will probably lack some options in the centre-back department but they have a good time with big roster, so they will have certain quality whoever takes on the field – players sidelined will not be missed a big deal.
They are top of the pile with good attack and stable financies. In these circumstances, they have all the power they can get. But, we showed last time around we can match the occasion. We want to show more of the same this time around. I have full faith in my team, my players and our work. Our duty will be to go out there and do our best.
It remains to be seen how successful our approach to tomorrow`s game will be. We surprised many with our display last derby out but I won`t go into tactical bits now, we`ll just focus to match the opponents tomorrow.
We are in a positive mood after a win away to Radnicki 1923 where we needed to show our character and attitude after cup elimination traumas.
We are at the runners-up spot and that`s our reality. You might say we could have done better in some games but we had days when we were winning after not so good performances on the field. Generally, we are pleased as we were eight points ahead of third-placed when I arrived here, now the next team in line is trailing seventeen points behind, we are few points short of securing runners-up position mathematically, so I think this alone is a success but we still have a duty to show motivation all the way through.
