Partizan IMT: Red Card in 14th Minute, Loss at Humska
Partizan played most of the match a man down after Aleksa Zekovic was sent off in the 14th minute, losing 1-2 to IMT at Humska. IMT are now the league's only team with nine points after three rounds.
Only fourteen minutes had been played when referee Milos Milanovic of Cuprija stopped the game at the center of the pitch and reached for a red card. Partizan’s midfield had just lost the ball, and Aleksa Zekovic tried to correct the mistake with a tackle on Tiendrebeogo, too hard and too far from his own goal for the challenge to be justified. About 4,000 fans at Humska watched the black and whites play the rest of the night, a full 76 minutes, with ten men.
The rest of the first half went the way such a card usually dictates. Partizan sat back, IMT circulated the ball without hurrying, and Keita came closest to scoring with a header that flew past the post. The teams went into the break level at 0-0.
The breakthrough came in the 52nd minute. Dusan Zagar picked up the ball in midfield, carried it forward a few steps and, with no Partizan player closing him down, fired from around twenty meters. Krunic had no chance.
The final score of the round three SuperLiga match at Humska was 1-2 for IMT. The goals:
- 0-1, Zagar in the 52nd minute
- 1-1, Milan Vukotic in the 89th minute, from a free kick
- 1-2, Orijomi Lebi in stoppage time
Partizan lined up with Krunic, Roganovic, Milic, Simic, Djurdjevic, Aleksic (Vukotic 58), Zekovic, Trifunovic (Traore 65), Ugresic (Kostic 81), Zubairu (Alilovic 81), Kojzek (Lekic 65). After three rounds, the black and whites have one win, one draw and one loss.
The Bench Decided the Finish, But Only One Change Mattered
Interestingly, both late goals came from players introduced from the bench. Vukotic replaced Aleksic in the 58th minute, then set the ball up eighteen meters from goal, curled it over the wall and beat Cancarevic to make it 1-1. Lebi had come on in the 68th minute for Keita, and in stoppage time he ran into the penalty area, went past Roganovic and Simic, and scored from close range.
The difference is that one substitution saved a point for two minutes, and the other took all three away.
Why Does Partizan Keep Conceding Out of Nothing?
The coach himself provided the answer after the match. Sasa Ilic used his press conference first to tip his hat to the visitors, then returned to the card from the 14th minute.
“I congratulate IMT on a deserved win. The early sending off of Zekovic was completely unnecessary and largely decided the course of the match.”
Asked how much playing a man down affected everything that followed, he was brief: “Overall, a naively conceded red card. It certainly had an impact, playing a man down.”
He did not question his players’ effort, but immediately pointed to where the crack was.
“The players showed great energy, I can’t fault them on that. They gave everything, we equalized. But in the end we conceded a naive goal.”
Then came the sentence that said the most about a season that has only just begun:
“The problem is our youth and the fact that we’re practically conceding goals out of nothing. It keeps repeating itself from match to match.”
IMT Went From Missing the Playoffs to the Top of the Table in a Year
This was not just a bad night for Partizan. The team from Novi Beograd, coached by Zoran Popovic, failed to even reach the SuperLiga playoffs last season. Now, after three rounds, it is the only side with a maximum nine points and sits atop the table. IMT picked up its third win away from home, against a club that has managed four points in the same span.
For Partizan, this was the first defeat of the season, and it came at the worst possible time. On Thursday at 9 p.m., the black and whites host Kazakhstan’s Tobol in Belgrade in the first leg of the Conference League third qualifying round, giving Ilic just three days between the two matches.
“It would certainly have been better had we won, so we could go into Thursday in a positive atmosphere.”
Judging by what was seen at Humska, the red card did change the match, but it did not create the problem Ilic described. A long range goal with no pressure on the shooter and a stoppage time run past two defenders are not the product of playing a man short, but of concentration that slips exactly when it needs to hold. The answer arrives Thursday at 9 p.m.
