Partizan Beats Tobol 3-0 as VAR Overturns Two Calls
Partizan beat Tobol 3-0 in the Conference League qualifier before roughly 15,000 fans at Humska, with two VAR reviews and no new signings. The return leg is in Kazakhstan on August 13.
First minute, a two on one break, and Demba Sek drives into the box with a teammate free beside him. He picks his shot and misses the goal. The match between Partizan and Tobol opened as a night of squandered chances, and it stayed that way for the next half hour.
Chances kept coming and nobody was scoring. Bogdan Kostic had his own opening, Sek headed wide in the 27th minute, and Ibrahim Zubairu spun through the Kazakh side’s box without finding the net.
Then came a corner from Aleksic. The ball deflected to Sek at the edge of the penalty area, he sent it into the net and put Partizan ahead in the 33rd minute, the same player who had missed the easiest chance on the pitch half an hour earlier.
Partizan beat Tobol 3-0 in front of roughly 15,000 fans in the first leg of the Conference League third qualifying round, played on Thursday, August 6, at the Humska stadium. After Sek, Zubairu scored in the 65th minute and Saka Traore in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Vukotic hit the crossbar with a free kick in first-half stoppage time, with goalkeeper Ustimenko beaten.
The visitors arrived at Humska with Ustimenko in goal and Milovanovic up front, who was substituted in the 67th minute, by which point Tobol were already trailing 2-0. Their best chance of the night came at the start of the second half. Sek cut off a ball just outside the box and crossed it in from the right in front of goal, but Kostic mishit it from three meters out and sent it into Kojzek instead of the net.
What Did VAR Decide at Humska?
VAR intervened twice, and ruled differently each time. In the 53rd minute, Erik Kojzek put the ball in the Tobol net off an assist from Aleksic, but the goal was disallowed for offside. That review took about five minutes.
In the fourth minute of stoppage time, it went the other way. The referee first signaled offside on Traore’s shot, then overturned the call after watching the replay and awarded the goal. Partizan ended up with a third goal that, moments earlier, had not existed on the pitch at all.
Between those two decisions came a goal nobody disputed. Kostic threaded the ball through the middle, Kojzek took it and laid it off, and Zubairu slipped between two defenders to make it 2:0.
A Squad With No Reinforcements Allowed
The scoreline alone does not show what made this tie unusual. Partizan went into it without a single new player in the squad, because old debt still keeps the club barred from registering reinforcements, as we reported ahead of the match. Everything Sasa Ilic had at his disposal was already in the locker room.
The Black and Whites started with:
- Krunic in goal
- Roganovic, Simic, Mitrovic and Djurdjevic in defense
- Vukotic, Sek, Kostic, Aleksic and Zubairu in midfield
- Kojzek up front
Traore, who set the final score, came on in the 83rd minute for Sek. It was his second goal in a Partizan jersey.
The Return Leg and What Awaits the Winner
The second match is played on August 13 in Kazakhstan. It is a long trip, and a three-goal cushion is a lead Partizan rarely carries into a European away game.
The winner of this qualifying playoff tie faces Spain’s Getafe. That is the last obstacle before the Conference League group stage, and an opponent from one of Europe’s five strongest leagues is a completely different measuring stick than Kazakhstan.
Thursday’s game at Humska showed this squad can still make a difference against opposition from a weaker league, even without reinforcements. The test now comes away from home, where a mistake costs double and the reserve of goals is not unlimited. The next date is August 13.
