IMT Novi-Belgrad beat Mladost Lučani 2:0 in the Super League Regular Season on Sunday night. The result keeps the hosts in third place with 13 points from seven games, while Mladost remain sixth on 10 points. And here's the thing about cup football — it has its own rules, but this was league football, and the points mattered.
Josué Tiendrebeogo opened the scoring at minute 37, his first real chance after 37 minutes of A-side pressure. Mladost had kept things tight in the opening quarter, their goalkeeper making three saves and their defenders clearing 34 balls. By then the pattern was clear — hosts moving the ball, guests digging in.
The second goal came through Charly Keita at minute 84, but the match had been decided in the moments between. Eight substitutions in the second half told you about the urgency, with Veljko Kijevčanin, Dušan Jovančić, and Mihailo Todosijević all coming on for Mladost. Nikola Glišić picked up a yellow card at minute 61, a caution that came when the game was still balanced.
Look at the numbers and you see the story. IMT had 56 per cent possession, 173 attacks compared with 108, and five shots on target against Mladost's zero. The visitors managed only three key passes, while the hosts created seven. Eight shots off target for IMT showed they were working hard, even if the finishing wasn't always clean.
The result matters because this was a game between sides who had been inconsistent. IMT had lost three of their last five before this, including a 3:0 defeat to Gazitepe. Mladost had drawn four of their seven league games. A clean sheet and two goals against a side that managed zero shots on target is the kind of performance that builds momentum.
Third place sits three points above Mladost now, and the gap could grow if the hosts keep this up. The visitors will need to find a way to create something — they had four corners across the whole match, none of them tested. Football, as it always does, rewards those who make their chances count.