Seslar double earns Celje a 3-2 win at Sturm Graz
How Celje led for most of the evening in Graz, why the goal before half-time mattered, and what Oumar Diakité's late second goal did and did not change.
By Harvey Watkins,
Celje won 3-2 at Sturm Graz on Thursday night in Matchday 4 of the Europa League. Svit Seslar scored twice and Benjamin Verbic added the other. Oumar Diakité scored both goals for the home side, the second in stoppage time, but Sturm Graz were never in front at any point in the match.
How the goals came
Seslar opened the scoring in the 29th minute. The lead lasted 11 minutes before Diakité equalised in the 40th, and for a brief spell the match was level again. It did not stay that way. Verbic restored Celje's advantage in the 45th minute, so the visitors went in at half-time 2-1 up, having answered the equaliser within five minutes.
That sequence shaped the rest of the evening. A goal on the stroke of half-time changes the picture at the interval entirely, and Sturm Graz went from level terms to chasing the game in the space of a few minutes. Instead of starting the second half on equal footing, they started it a goal down.
The next goal was the one that mattered most, and it went Celje's way. Seslar scored his second in the 73rd minute to make it 3-1, which left Sturm Graz needing two goals in the time that remained. Diakité got one of them in the 93rd minute, but by then there was no time left to push for an equaliser.
Reading the result
The scoreline says 3-2, but the shape of the match was more one-sided than a single-goal margin suggests. Celje led from the 29th minute to the 40th and again from the 45th to the final whistle, roughly an hour of football in total. Sturm Graz spent none of the evening ahead.
Celje also scored at the moments that did the most damage. Twice, after Diakité's equaliser and after the interval, the match could have tilted towards the home side. Verbic's goal came straight after the first of those moments, and Seslar's second removed any real doubt with a little under 20 minutes of normal time left.
For Sturm Graz, the positive was Diakité. He scored both of their goals, one to bring them level when they were behind and one to make the final margin narrower. Two goals from one player in a home defeat is a mixed return, though. It kept the scoreline close without ever putting the result in question once Celje went two clear.
The scorers
- Celje: Svit Seslar (29, 73), Benjamin Verbic (45)
- Sturm Graz: Oumar Diakité (40, 93)
A list of goal times tells you when the match turned but not everything about how. What it does show clearly is that Celje were the side in control of the scoreline for most of the night, and that a late goal from Diakité made the final margin look tighter than the evening had been.