Sutjeska football players were defeated tonight in Nikšić by the Belarusian Dinamo Brest (2:1) in the first match of the first round of qualifications for the Conference League.
The visitors led from the 25th minute and a great goal by Bikov, and then Sutjeska equalized in the 90th minute, when Vasko Kalezić converted a penalty. Then, the referee entered the stoppage time, and in the 95th minute, Medo Juković scored an own goal, so the team from Nikšić goes into the rematch with a deficit, which will be played next Thursday on a neutral field in Hungary.
And after the first goal of the visiting team, shouts of "Milija go away" could be heard from the stands, addressed to the coach of the "blues" Milija Savović. This continued and in the end, from both stands, the fans demanded the departure of the coach of Sutjeska, but also insulted him.
"As for me and my coaching staff - the results are behind us. I wouldn't comment on that. Everyone has their own desires, and I have my own desires. As long as the results serve me and as long as I work properly, I think I'm absolutely the right person. There are other opinions for various reasons, so I wouldn't comment on that. My job is to work as correctly as possible and to produce results, as I have done so far, when I was the coach on these two occasions. I think that - especially tonight with this performance, with this kind of game, with ten days of preparation - we deserved a round of applause and sent a message that we will look better and more serious than we looked last year. My job is to work and achieve results, and there are those who decide what and how to do next," Savović said after the match.
He pointed out that his team was unlucky tonight.
"I think the audience was able to see an excellent Sutjeska, who were a better opponent than Dinamo. Unfortunately, due to a lack of luck, we lost. Based on everything we saw tonight, I think we are equal to them and that we can try to turn the result around in the second leg in Hungary. In the second half, there was a noticeable lack of competitive rhythm, to press even harder, but we managed to equalize. Then we conceded a clumsy goal. But, after the match, we can be satisfied with the game, how the team looked and how they presented themselves to the audience. We hope that the result will come in the second leg."
Sutjeska had chances, but their reactions were clumsy.
"That's realistic to expect. We've been together for ten days, so these things happen. There were situations, some chances could have been 100 percent if we had better reactions, but unfortunately we didn't manage to finish properly. But, we've just started, we've just put the team together, I think it will look better," said Savović.
Sutjeska is working on bringing in players by the end of the transfer window.
"We are working on it, we had some options, but a lot of things that happened around the organization slowed us down. However, there is a lot of time until the championship, until the end of the transfer window and we will expand the squad. We are not going to bring in a player who cannot meet our criteria. We are looking for the right solutions, we have the whole season ahead of us. One or two matches mean nothing. We have this playing staff at our disposal."
Savović explained why he only used two substitutions.
"We have a large number of young players. When you don't have experience, awkward situations happen, which you saw in the end. There was no opportunity for someone else to adequately respond to the challenge that the game required. Maybe we could have made changes in defense, but that wouldn't have helped us in the last minute, and that's why there were two substitutions," said the Sutjeska coach.
Savović is pleased with the reinforcements.
"I'm happy with the reinforcements. You saw how everything went. I think they presented themselves adequately to the audience, who could see that they are quality players, who will bring improvement to the team compared to what we had last year. I have nothing to hold against them, I praised them. We will wait for the second leg to see if we can take a step forward. It will be difficult, but it is not impossible to win on neutral ground," concluded Milija Savović.
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