Radnički Niš took all three points against OFK Belgrade in the Super Liga's ninth round, winning 3-1 at home on Saturday. The result shifts things slightly in the lower half of the table, with the hosts moving off the bottom of mid-table while OFK remain just above them. It was not a game defined by dominance from either side, but by who answered when it mattered.
Ibrahim Mustapha opened the scoring in the seventh minute. Radnički paid for a sloppy opening by OFK, and the visitor never quite recovered the rhythm. By then, OFK were already chasing the game rather than dictating it, though they would not admit that for another forty minutes.
OFK levelled through a penalty after VAR intervention in the fiftieth minute. Sergio Peña converted, and suddenly the visitors thought they had found their footing. But by then Radnički had already set a pattern: absorb pressure, strike quickly, repeat.
Luka Izderic restored the lead in the sixty-first, and A. Shestyuk sealed it in the eightieth. OFK worked the channels but never got out of second gear — they had the ball, but not the bite. Radnički held on grimly, making substitutions to see out the game rather than chase more.
OFK controlled possession at 68 per cent, but shots tell the real story. They registered 2 shots on target from 6 attempts, while Radnički hit 7 on target from 12. The visitors created just one big chance compared to the hosts' three, and that gap proved decisive.
Before the match, Radnički sat twelfth with eight points from eight games, OFK tenth with nine from nine. The result leaves the visitors with nine points still, while the hosts move to eleven. Neither side is breathing easy, but one has taken a step forward and the other has not.