OFK Belgrade made light work of Novi Pazar in the SuperLiga's third round, winning 4-1 on Saturday evening. The result moved the visitors up the table while leaving the hosts struggling to find their rhythm after a solid start to the campaign.
And here's the thing about the opening exchanges — Novi Pazar looked dangerous early on, but Belgrade struck first. D. Y. Silue found the net in the thirteenth minute, and the hosts responded with a penalty of their own. V. Kotzebue converted in the thirty-second, only for Silue to double his tally just before the break with a forty-minute finish. That was a quarter of an hour where the game turned, and by then Novi Pazar were chasing shadows.
The second half opened with a goal and a substitution in quick succession. J. Sljivic made it three for Belgrade in the forty-sixth, and S. Togbe came on for Novi Pazar almost immediately. Pena added a fourth in the sixty-seventh, and the match was effectively over. The hosts made changes — Dixon, Johnson Agwom, Kotzebue — but nothing shifted the momentum.
Statistics tell only part of the story. Novi Pazar held 52 per cent possession and launched 106 attacks compared to Belgrade's 83, but shots told a different tale. The hosts managed only three shots on target from twelve attempts, while Belgrade hit the mark seven times from fourteen. Three big chances for each side, yet the conversion rate separated them entirely.
The table now shows Novi Pazar in sixth place on 11 points from eight games, while Belgrade sit tenth with 9. The visitors had lost their last two before this — a 4-0 hammering at Vojvodina and a 2-1 defeat to Gazitep — so this result ended a run that might have worried their supporters. Novi Pazar, meanwhile, have now lost three of their eight outings and will be looking for answers.