Not sure what to make of the matches today, between Coronavirus and injuries it looks like there will be some odd lineups.
I think the injury list at Sparta (apart from obviously Hlozek) will actually benefit them today with Heca and Hanousek absent. I also imagine Kotal will drop Lischka and possibly do so at the expense of a newly available Hancko. Not like they could do any worse than the previous two match days. Liberec on the other hand may in fact do worse than last week having been devastated by Covid cases. They will face Hoffenheim with an almost completely new squad that is vastly inexperienced. The Slavia team to face Nice: Kolar - Masopust, Hovorka, Zima, Dorley - Holes, Sevcik - Sima, Lingr, Olayinka - Kuchta So the additional Covid cases appear to be Kovar and Malinsky, while Stanciu just recently had a newborn so he is absent.
My main takeaways from what I've seen so far: • Kolar continues to make key saves, but continues to also have shaky moments distributing the ball this season • The left side of Dorley and Olayinka is working well • The right side of Masopust and Sima is working not so well, but the latter scored a big goal at the end of the first half • Kuchta has made a few good moves (and one shocking dive in the box) in addition to his solo goal that was set up by not so Nice defending Otherwise, another great result if it stands, especially with a young lineup like this.
Sparta team to play Celtic: Nita - Plechaty, Pavelka, Hancko - Vindheim, Sacek, Karabec, Krejci, Polidar - Julis, Karlsson Celustka was a late scratch to the lineup, so Pavelka moves back into defence with Sacek returning to his natural central midfield position. Another big loss for Sparta here, but they do gain Hancko (even if totally rusty should be better than Lischka). The other notable absence is Dockal who is not suspended as I thought last week, but is dropped in favour of Karabec instead. Many were calling for this change to be made.
Hopefully he can become a regular starter now that Hlozek is out. Otherwise my interest in watching them each week goes down significantly.
3-1 Slavia! Kuchta with his second goal after more brilliance from Dorley + Olayinka down that left side.
Just saw Liberec's lineup, which is remarkably inexperienced due to Coronavirus, on the flip side this was the match they had the least chance of anything anyway.
Sparta ahead, finally putting away a chance after a few minute flurry. Could this be the day we break the 1 win 2 loss result trend
Sparta double their lead as Julis has a first half brace. Karabec assist although Molber-Karlsson really burned Celtic's defense with a fairly direct run. Swapping Dockal out has definitely helped Sparta, no offense, but at this level they need activity more than technique.
Bayer Leverkusen dominated statistics and won 4-2 at Hapoel Beer Sheva. Hapoel Beer Sheva led 2-1. The group has a 6-6-3-3 distribution, and in both ties the club that leads on head-to-head has a worse goal differential. Slavia is first with +0, Bayer is second with +5, Nice is third with -4, and Hapoel is last with -1. Slavia leads Hapoel by 3 points and head-to-head so far with the second game at Slavia. I think the top two will finish that way in some order. Lille leads 3-0 at AC Milan. If the scores remain the same, Lille will have 7, Milan will have 6, Sparta will have 3, and Celtic will have 1. Sparta will host two of their last three including Milan, but with Milan having won 3-0 hosting Sparta, Milan will probably win the head-to-head tiebreaker if necessary. Sparta should hope the Matchday 4 has the same results as the clubs leading now. Liberec trails 3-0, while Crvena Zvevda leads 2-1 hosting Gent. If the games finish that way, Hoffenheim will have 9, Crvena Zvezda will have 6, Liberec will have 3, and Gent (who was in Pot 1) will have 0. The only gap between matchdays is coming up. Because of national team games, Matchday 4 will be in three weeks.
Sparta aren't safe yet, moments after hitting the woodwork on a would be 3-0 they conceded a goal. Since then the match has been much more even if not Celtic favorable after a prolonged period of Sparta control
Nevermind they are safe, Julis gets a hat-trick, another great play by Molberg-Karlsson. Sparta ahead 3-1 in the 77th minute.
Dockal and Krejci the elder came off the bench and teamed up for a vintage 4th goal. Sparta finally give a confident performance. Important day for our coefficients with wins by Slavia and Sparta. Hopefully Liberec will have something resembling their actual lineup for upcoming home matches.
You passed Croatia and Israel to move up to 19th for the last four complete seasons and this season so far.
The league resumes this weekend with many coaches and players unavailable. First match actually going on now is Brno - Jablonec. We've had so many injuries this season that its hard to tell if we are even impacted by all of this.
The league did resume last week, and despite the time off (or perhaps from a defenders perspective, because of) a few candidates for goal of the season happened. The best was almost certainly Tomas Zajic of Ostrava's solo run through Pribram's defense, but the first two goals by Plzen were also excellent. Results Teplice 1 - 2 Slovan Liberec Karvina 2 - 1 Bohemians Slavia 1 - 0 Mlada Boleslav Plzen 3 - 1 Sparta Pribram 0 - 4 Ostrava C. Budejovice 1 - 2 Zlin Slovacko 0 - 0 Olomouc Pardubice 1 - 0 Opava Jablonec 0 - 1 Brno
To some degree, I think it would be easy to chart the two teams relative form with % of squad missing due to injury or illness. For Slavia its also big that they are starting to incorporate new players like Oscar, Sima and Kuchta. That said it's unforgivable for a team with Sparta's resources to concede 4 goals at home to Ceske Budejovice.
I'm convinced that Trpisovsky would make a great scout if he wasn't a successful manager. Slavia may have lost a handful of notable players over the years, but currently have an interesting young core emerging that could become quite profitable in the future. It's probably unfair to really slate Sparta with what has to be a record-setting injury list, but it's also inexcusable to be handing out endless chances to some players that clearly are not suitable for a club of their stature. Slavia just seem to be much better prepared/managed with a far superior player recruitment system, as opposed to Sparta who largely depend on individual performances for results.
Liberec 0-2 Hoffenheim Sparta 4-1 Celtic Nice 0-1 Slavia (56th minute) Bayer Leverkusen leads 2-0 hosting Hapoel Beer Sheva. If Slavia and Bayer win, Slavia will remain in first ahead of Bayer on head-to-head. The top two would have 9, and the bottom two would have 3. If Slavia wins, they will have a head-to-head sweep and clinch over Nice, but they can't clinch advancing until next week. If Slavia loses both and Hapoel wins both, Slavia will be eliminated. Slavia will advance if the current scores hold and Slavia gets at least a draw hosting Hapoel next week. Sparta is in third with 6, but they could finish first. Lille has 8 and AC Milan has 7. Celtic has 1. Liberec is almost eliminated. They lost 5-1 at Crvena Zvezda. In order to advance, Liberec must win at Gent, who has lost all 4 games, Crvena must lose hosting Hoffeheim, who has won all 4, and Liberec must win by at least 4 hosting Crvena to win the head-to-head tiebreaker. In order of most likely to advance to least likely, it's Slavia, Sparta, and Liberec.
It's US Thanksgiving so didn't watch, but have seen some highlights. Liberec did there part by qualifying to begin with, but our coefficient really needs the prague teams to advance. Slavia are close and on good form, but sparta is hard to predict.