Slovan Bratislava 0-1 MSK ZilinaIn the preview, I said this round of games would go a long way towards telling us how the rest of the season will shape up and that certainly appears to be the case as Zilina open up a significant lead at the top of the table. Tomas Majtan continued his fine run of form with a 68th minute goal to secure victory for the Champions away in the capital.
3,680 spectators turned up at Pasienky which is about 3 times the average this season, but undoubtably a large proportion were from Zilina. Slovan needed a result here to keep alive their hopes in the league this season, but this match seems to have provided evidence enough that the strength of Zilina’s squad is starting to grow away from the rest of the teams in Slovakia. Zilina are showing the form of Champions while new Slovan coach Karel Jarolim has a big job on his hands to stop this season going from bad to worse. Slovan need to make a plan and concentrate on securing the minimum expectation which now has to be European qualification. Zilina move 6 points clear at the top and the signs from last week that they could run away with this year’s Championship grow stronger.
Spartak Trnava 0-0 ViOn Zlate Moravce
Even the presence of Danny Last’s European Football Weekends wasn’t enough to muster a goal out of this match. 4,637 fans were desperately willing their team to score the winner to keep up the pressure on Zilina but a determined performance from ViOn shows they are no pushover in the league this season and should be watched out for a possible dark horses in the cup.
FK Senica 1-1 Tatran Presov
You won’t stay in touch with the league leaders if you can’t beat relegation candidates at home and the fears over whether Senica can really hack the pace at the top prove well-founded. A last minute penalty let Presov in for a bonus point here and allows Zilina an extra
2 points lead at the top.
FC Nitra 0-1 DAC Dunajska Streda
DAC good run of form continues with a fine away win at Nitra. With 2 wins and 2 draws from their last 4 games, suddenly DAC fear of relegation has been transformed into hopes of keeping touch with those chasing the European places.
Dukla Banska Bystrica 4-1 Kosice
Kosice took a 1-0 lead here and you really wondered if they would surprise a victory against a Dukla side lacking form. However the 2nd half was a complete turn around although 2 late goals from Dukla possibly give the scoreline an unbalanced look. Kosice’s problems continue to escalate, and it’s hard to see them turning this season around. Dark days indeed for MFK Kosice.
MFK Ruzomberok 0-1 MFK Dubnica
Ruzomberok are another team struggling for form and Dubnica start to open up some daylight between themselves and the bottom 2 with another valuable 3 points.
League 1:
AS Trencin 2-1 FC Petrzalka 1898
Trencin are now 11 points clear at the top of the 1st Division and appear to be making light work of securing promotion to the Corgon Liga in record time. This promised to be a major test for Trencin, but they secured the victory which leaves Petrzalka with a mountain to climb if they are to have any chance of bouncing straight back to the top league after last season’s relegation.
By Daniel Richardson