I don't think he was in great form prior to the last few weeks, plus it's a friendly some roster experimentation. That said, I found the forward selections for this match a bit odd - Tecl has a bright future but between his late fall injury and the winter break he is several months removed from his great form last fall. Ordos just doesn't seem to have much NT future at his age.
Wow, Plzen! I did kind of expect them to advance, but didn't expect 3 goal victory in Italy. They are in commanding position going into the 2nd leg. (Goals by Darida, Rajtoral, and Tecl, btw). Sparta though will need a result in London to advance as they lost 0-1 in the first
Tough exit for Sparta, they had a 0-1 lead in London and appeared headed for extratime before a stoppage time goal by Hazard eliminated them. Lafata with his first goal for Sparta. Plzen dispatched of Napoli with little difficulty, managing a 2-0 result at home to advance with a 5-0 aggregate score. Kovarik and Tecl (both winter signings) with the goals today. Next up for Plzen is Fenerbahce in the Round of 16, I think they have a very good chance at advancing.
The Gambrinus Liga's season in European Competition has ended. Plzen falling to Fenerbahce 1-2 on aggregate, Plzen came within inches of advancing as Limbersky had a shot the post during the 2nd half in Turkey. Disappointing, but doesn't take away from what was a great season for Czech Clubs in Europe. According to this website tracking real-time UEFA coefficients, the 2012/2013 season for Czech teams was 8.500, which helped our 5-year ranking climb to #17 in Europe. While there are no more Czech teams, the following Czech players are still in European competition: Champions League: Tomas Ujfalusi - Galatasaray (although he is recovering from an injury currently) Europa League Petr Cech - Chelsea Libor Kozak - Lazio (currently the tournaments top goal scorer, although he unfortunately hasn't transferred any of this success into Serie A)