The results yesterday pushed our Coefficient rank back ahead of Denmark and Switzerland going into next year. This should more or less guarantee us a top 15 spot which means we will again have 2 Champions League and 3 Europa league spots.
Plzen won the match of the week defeating Slavia 2 - 0. Confident performance from the defending champions to keep things interesting. 2nd biggest match of the week was Ostrava 2 - 1 Liberec Surprise results, Pribram 3 - 2 Zlin; this winter window was not kind to Zlin but even so Pribram have looked pitiful in recent matches even last fall. I suspect Zlin will fall out of the top 6 by seasons end. Also, Jablonec 2 - 2 Opava is a bit of a shock. Other results: Bohemians 0 - 1 Olomouc Teplice 0 - 2 Mlada Boleslav Tomorrow is Dukla - Sparta
Dukla 2 - 3 Sparta A win for Sparta, but not convincing considering that Dukla are the worst team in the league.
Jakub Brabec has apparently signed with Plzen in a deal that went completely under the radar. Not convinced by Brabec at the national team level (too weak as his mediocre time abroad shows) and his current form in general is questionable. Still considering his age and past accomplishments, I think a good low-risk to high-reward signing for the cost (its a loan initially). Plzen definitely seems to have won the winter transfer window in terms of impact of new players with Beauguel with 2 goals and an assist in 3 matches, plus Kayamba giving them an individual flair with the ball that they've not had since Pilar in his prime.
Unfortunately Brabec not available for today as I didn't realize just how depleted Plzen's defensive options are. They've had to start Limbersky in the middle today. Against Dani Olmo and Zagreb's attacking players that will be a tough ask to secure advancement. Edit sure enough, Zagreb is taking it to them in the first half so far.
As bad as Plzen were in Zagreb, Slavia are completely dominating play in Belgium so far. They gave up a very against the run of play goal earlier but just went back ahead on away goals.
And Slavia add a 3rd, that will do it. Great performance beating the top Belgian team on the road like this. Slavia are a complete team, and I still think they can go even farther in this competition. Edit: Make it 4, Slavia finally finding the back of the net which has been their one weakness so far in this competition.
FT Genk 1 : 4 Slavia Brilliant performance, Slavia on to the round of 16. I believe this result also moves our league ahead of Greece on the UEFA coefficient going into next year.
Draw is tomorrow, this is about the point in a European tournament where easy games really stop being a thing. From a strictly on paper match up, Slavia's best bets are probably Rennes, Salzburg, Krasnodar, or Zagreb. The team to beat overall is probably Sevilla.
Slavia drew Sevilla as their next round, my opinion the toughest match-up although if they were to defy odds and advance they'd have a lot of confidence going into the next round (I would say they probably do now with how they completely dismantled Genk in Belgium). Either way, Slavia (and Plzen despite the complete collapse in Croatia) did enough to keep us in a solid Coefficient position. Soucek also probably upped his value considerably, and Kral looked great as well.
Watching Sparta - Ostrava. Sparta need a new manager, they somehow managed to even mess up Dockal's return by putting Kanga (the most consistent current player) on the bench. Ostrava ahead 0-1 in the first half Edit: 1-1 Sparta off a very poorly defended corner
Sparta pulled away in the 2nd half on a few individual moments, although the final result is 3-2 as Ostrava netted a conciliation in stoppage time. Vaclav Drchal, a young striker at Sparta, got some minutes (and a goal) and looks an interesting prospect for the future.
Slavia and Plzen both won their matches today, the former emphatically and the latter comfortably (Opava's goal occurred late in stoppage time). Slavia 4 : 0 Slovacko Opava 1 : 2 Plzen
Results of the week: Bohemians 0 : 3 Slavia - Expected result ahead of the next round of Europa League. Alex Kral has been a boost for Slavia, and looks like a prospect for the senior team if he keeps it up. He pulled of a perfect Zidane roulette today that is making the rounds on twitter. Dukla 0 : 4 Sigma Olomouc - Dukla look done Slovacko 1 : 1 Mlada Boleslav - fairly insignificant Pribram 2 : 1 Karvina - Matousek scores in his 2nd match back to Pribram on loan. If he picks up his early season form they should be safe from relegation battles. Liberec 0 : 1 Sparta - Good result for Sparta, although the match was apparently very dull. Teplice 3 : 2 Opava - Teplice look set to finish mid-table. Opava still have some work to stay up Plzen 1 : 0 Jablonec - Plzen got 6 points from matches against Jablonec and Slavia this spring Ostrava 1 : 2 Zlin - a sign of life from Zlin, and a major disappointment from Ostrava Slavia and Plzen have pulled away from the pack all season and are only in competition with themselves. Sparta with 4 straight wins seem to be separating from 4th place. The biggest battles in the next weeks are: Can Plzen catch Slavia? (3 points back with 7 matches to go) Who will be the last team to make the top 6 group? Zlin are holding on but were substantially weakened in winter, Liberec and Mlada Boleslav are both within 3 points - I predict Liberec will overtake them
This weekend was also the return of 2. Liga Not going to go into too much detail, but Brno managed a much needed road win to dig out of an early season hole.
HT in Spain and its Sevilla 2 : 2 Slavia Sevilla are definitely the better team, but they are susceptible to counter attacks as Slavia has shown. Some of the strangest goals of the whole tournament in this one, especially Slavia's 2nd goal which was a reaction headed Kral just wanted to put the ball back into the area and it just sort of arched into the far corner. Vaclik got injured in a collision with the post diving to save that 2nd goal. Didn't look major, but clearly enough for him to not be able to continue.
Slavia's defense is falling apart everytime Sevilla gets forward, but not been punished yet. Not too surprising considering Slavia is missing their best defender, although Deli for his part is playing pretty well. Interestingly, Slavia is making only attacking subs so far. They may sense a chance for a counterattack as Sevilla pushes to take an advantage into the 2nd leg in Prague.
Sevilla just got robbed by a bad offside call, although they had just before that got away with an offside that forced a save not long before. Both teams want a 3rd goal as we enter the last 10.
FT 2:2 Bit of luck (mostly the blown offside call) for Slavia as the match tilted heavily to Sevilla most of the 2nd half before leveling off at the very end. 2 Away goals are a big bonus to take home. Good effort, but not a good performance really - Soucek was very poor by his standard. While I don't think Slavia played particularly well, they scored twice as many goals against Sevilla in their own stadium than their other Europa League opponents combined. Sevilla are normally dominant at home and more average away.
Couple of big matches in Prague this weekend with Plzen traveling to Sparta and Ostrava traveling to Slavia. Definitely expect Slavia to get 3 points as Ostrava are looking more mediocre lately, but no idea what to expect in the other.
Description doesn't do it justice. While unconventional, Sevilla probably deserved to give up a goal with that marking. If you didn't see Sevilla v Slavia Prague last night then you missed one of the greatest goals ever scored... pic.twitter.com/emDHWswVf3— Football Nation (@FootballNation) March 8, 2019
Results of the two big weekend matches: Slavia 4 : 0 Ostrava - About as expected, the gap between the top and even solid teams is massive this year. The result is significant though because.... Sparta 4 : 0 Plzen - First, fair play to Sparta as this was their best performance all year. Dockal and Kanga are playing together and it seems to be working so far. That said, this is the 3rd time Plzen just completely bombed against presumably level competition on the road (Jablonec and Slavia before)... 4th if you count Zagreb in Europa League. Slavia is now 6 points clear and flying with 6 rounds left, they will almost surely win the league going into phase 2. From the 2. Liga Brno 5 : 0 Zizkov (still about 10 minutes remaining)- Much better start than in autumn, but still a lot of work to make the top 3. Edit: Make it 6 -0.
One more note on the Sparta - Plzen match, and a follow up on a name I mentioned in the national team thread. Adam Hlozek of Sparta became the youngest player to ever score in the Czech league at 16. Even beyond the scoring, he's looked good in recent matches and his been part of their recent success.
STARTING XI ⤵️Our line-up for @SevillaFC_ENG tonight!Kolar; Kudela, Ngadeu, Deli, Boril; Soucek, Kral; Masopust, Traore, Stoch; Skoda.#slaviasevilla #slaviaprague #uel pic.twitter.com/WA3zZ5ZXtH— SK Slavia Prague EN (@slavia_eng) March 14, 2019 Better lineup in my opinion than the first leg, although that selection was specifically designed to frustrate Sevilla more than win... I understood the theory but it frankly failed as Slavia only stayed level by virtue of 2 goals. I still put the odds about 70-30 in the Spanish sides favor after the first leg, but should be a good match.