UEFA ECL: Partizan v Slovacko preview

Partizan plays final game of UEFA ECL group stage at home to Slovacko on Thursday, 9pm CET kick-off. Our team needs a point to progress through to the next stage. A win does not guarantee top spot at the final standings if OGC Nice wins FC Koln. A possible defeat does not mean elimination if FC Koln fails to win OGC Nice.

Partizan boss Gordan Petric ahead of Slovacko:

-It looks good but it`s not finished yet. Everything can turn upside down in a second; you`ve seen how Marseille dropped out of the CL last night. We are not going to look at the possible outcomes in our group, we`ll just go full speed; it`s clear what we are after.

We were part of European scene this Autumn and it`s on us now to draw or win, to try and get more European travels after the winter break. This is a nice opportunity for these lads. They`ve done a lot to get us out of the bad patch, now they have this game show what they made of once more. Club, coaching staff and fans, we are just there to service them.

It won`t be easy tomorrow. Czech will come here to try and win, add some prize money to their budget. They postponed their game against Sparta last weekend, enough said. It`s important we prevent visitors getting to our area via long balls and we need to be aggressive in a block. Lots of it will depend on flank and midfield players.

We learned our lessons away to Slovacko. They play direct football game, more direct compared to Koln. They have to be taken seriously. But, we shouldn`t burden ourselves with their game; we need to adjust our skills to our playing style. I`m sure we are capable of troubling them more than in the corresponding fixture.

I was hoping we were going to finish the job in Nice, than I would be able to field youngsters, regardless of us being top or second in the group.

PHOTO GALLERY: MIROSLAV TODOROVIC