Borac Banja Luka took a 3-1 victory over Velež on Sunday in the first round of the Premier League regular season. The result moves the hosts up in the table and extends a run that has seen them win three of five games so far. To be fair, the scoreline doesn't capture everything about how the match unfolded.
Romera opened the scoring in the 11th minute, a quick strike that set the tone for the opening quarter of an hour. Hiros doubled the lead just before the break, and Velež failed to respond. And here's the thing — the visitors had chances but couldn't find a way back into it.
Velež pulled one back through Juricic in the 78th minute, and Nukic answered eight minutes later to seal the result. There were three yellow cards on the day, two for Borac and one for Velež, but nothing that altered the flow of the game significantly. By then, the damage was already done.
Borac dominated possession at 66 per cent and registered 113 attacks against 88 for the visitors. They hit the target six times with ten shots wide, while Velež managed five shots on target and six off target. The statistics show Borac controlled the tempo, and the result reflected that control.
The win keeps Borac in second place with 10 points from five matches. Velež remain ninth with just four points from six games and a record of one win, one draw and four losses. The gap between them is narrowing, but the visitors still have work to do.