Setback! Sturm suffer defeat against Celje

SK Sturm Graz suffered a 3-2 home defeat to Slovenian champions NK Celje in round 4 of the UEFA Europa League.

Celje had already pinched a point off Salzburg on the previous matchday, and the teams met on equal footing in Graz as well. Luis Balbo following a free kick and Oumar Diakité with a header had Sturm's first good chances, but failed to convert.

Long-range shots posed a threat time and again, with Simon Seidl and Luca Weinhandl having decent opportunities for Sturm. However, Celje struck with their first proper chance of the game—and with plenty of help from the hosts: Sturm defender Valmir Matoshi misjudged a long ball, heading it straight into the path of Svit Seslar, who beat Ammar Helac in goal (29').

Celje more clinical

Both goalkeepers were called into action after that before Sturm managed to equalize. A cross from Paul Koller bounced over the heads of two Celje defenders to Diakité, who ruthlessly smashed the ball into the back of the net (40').

That was not all, however, as Benjamin Verbic turned Weinhandl inside out with a clever feint in the final minute before halftime and curled the ball into the top right corner (45').

Sturm started the second half strongly and created several chances. Diakité squandered two huge opportunities to equalize: after being set up twice by Seidl, the Ivorian first shot just wide right of goal, and three minutes later saw a header drift past the left post.

Diakite's late strike comes too late

After about a quarter of an hour, however, the Graz side seemed to have run out of steam. Celje began to hold their own again and effectively sealed the win thanks to another gift from Sturm.

Substitute Blaz Kramer struck a shot that should not have posed much danger, but Helac spilled the ball, allowing Seslar to tap in for his second of the match (73').

Sturm ran out of steam after that, and while the closing stages yielded plenty of set pieces for the hosts, hardly any of them posed a genuine threat.

It was not until stoppage time that Diakité completed his brace following a clever free-kick routine from Gizo Mamageishvili, giving Graz brief hope (90'+3), but his goal proved too little, too late.

Sturm remain on four points from four matches in the table, sitting in 24th place—the hot seat position that would just suffice for the playoff round—with Celje right behind them tied on points.