The football team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with 1:1 (0:0) draw against Sweden at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica, retained second place in Group 4 – League of Nations B, in which the Swedes remained at the top of the table.
Both selections remained undefeated after three rounds played, but after that, Poland, the next rival of “Zmajevi”, returned to the game for first place, which tonight defeated Romania 6:0 (1:0) at home.
Selector Sergej Barbarez pointed out at the press conference that he was aware that this match would be a farewell to Edin Džeko’s national team and that it was very easy for him to prepare the match, but it was not easy to keep the focus of all the players.
“This is a match that was manly, fierce, with good technical skills and a team that has good width. They have their own style, what I was talking about… A game that didn’t provide many opportunities for either side. I think we deservedly took this point, which makes me happy and satisfied…
I always say, you have another team and 11 others. I’ve always said that this is a team that knows what it’s doing even when five players change. That breadth, which a national team has – that it doesn’t look at who will play, but only that, in fact, they are all good.
Look at the clubs where they play. On that side, we have to be realistic, when the game doesn’t go well and when you can’t – said Barbarez, who pointed out that he was satisfied with the point won against Sweden. Not only did they win a point, he emphasizes, but the rival did not win and won three points.
He added that they made mistakes and left space between the back line and the goalkeeper, whose debut he was satisfied with. Salko Hamzić, he adds, readily stepped in instead of Martin Zlomislić, who had problems with the mobility of the goal, so they had to “cut” and decide to bring in another goalkeeper. The choice fell on Hamzić.
The system with four games in two weeks, as he says, requires great efforts, so some players had cramps. He hopes that this will not affect the meeting on Monday, when Poland arrives in Zenica. The Swedes will visit the Romanians on Monday, October 5, in the 4th round.
The draw at the opening of this League of Nations cycle away to Poland, in a game that ended without goals and in which coach Sergej Barbarez’s men avoided defeat for the first time in three duels against Poland in the League of Nations, gained even more significance when one takes into account how the Romanians fared in this away game tonight.
However, the BiH team is still waiting for a victory against Poland, against whom they were defeated twice in the League of Nations (1:2 and 0:3), and in three friendly matches they recorded only one draw – with a score of 2:2, but also two defeats with a minimum score of 0:1, Fena writes.
