July 30, 31 and August 1, 2021
Friday July 30, 2021
FK Teplice 1-3 SK Slavia Prague ( att : 7,745 )
Cerny ( 43 ) ; Schranz ( 22, 45, 81 )
Saturday July 31, 2021
FK Mlada Boleslav 3-0 FK Jablonec ( att : 2,471 )
Fila ( 11 ), Skoda ( 14 & 79 )
SK Sigma Olomouc 3-2 FK Pardubice ( att : 2,465 )
Veprek ( 8 ), Zifcak ( 45 ), Hala ( 52 ); Tomil ( 20 ), Soli ( 77 )
MFK Karvina 1-1 FC Hradec Kralove ( att : 2,053 )
Sinjavskiy ( 24 ); Dvorak ( 5 )
FC Slovan Liberec 0-5 AC Sparta Prague
Pesek ( 25 ), Hlozek ( 62 ), Karabec ( 66 pen ), Krejci ( 70 ), Soucek ( 79 )
Sunday August 1, 2021
FC Banik Ostrava 5-1 FC Fastav Zlin ( att : 4,602 )
Lischka ( 9 & 26 ), Sor ( 13 ), Almasi ( 34 ), Buchta ( 51 ); Poznar ( 69 )
FC Slovacko 1-0 FK Dynamo Ceske Budejovice ( att : 2,953 )
Kohut ( 60 )
Bohemians Praha 1905 1-2 FC Viktoria Plzen ( att : 3,584 )
Puskac ( 23 pen ); Beauguel ( 52 pen ), Kacer ( 72 )
Slavia Prague won the 2020/21 Czech championship without losing a game, and knocked Leicester City and Glasgow Rangers out of the Europa League, before being eliminated by Arsenal. By scoring all three goals, their new signing from Jablonec, Slovak International Ivan Schranz, was instrumental in leading them to an away win in a potentially tricky away fixture at Teplice,. The first came from a diving header, the second from a shot from the edge of the area, and the final goal came from a cute chip over the advancing keeper. In truth though, Schranz should have scored five or six, as Slavia dominated, but slack defending kept Teplice in the contest for much longer than they should have been.
Slavia keeper Kolar dwelt in possession to be robbed by Ledecky, who played in Cerny for an open goal. At 2-1, Kolar redeemed himself a little with a point blank save to keep out Cerny’s header, and a swift counter attack put Chlumecky clear on goal but he pushed his shot wide.
Teplice have now lost both of their opening games, whilst Slavia have two away wins to their credit.
Mlada Boleslav caused a bit of an upset thumping Jablonec, last season’s third placed team 3-0. Boleslav were major under-achievers last season eventually finishing mid-table after flirting with the bottom places for much of the season, being 15th at the mid-winter break. A challenge for the Europa League had been expected.
For Mlada, 35 year-old former international striker Milan Skoda, previously a mainstay at Slavia, signed from Turkish side Caykur Rizespor in the summer and made an immediate impact with two goals, with the other goal coming from 18 year old Daniel Fila, signed from relegated Brno for a reported 500K Euros. 33 year old ex Slavia, Spartak Moscow and Basel centre-back Milos Suchy looks to have also strengthen their defence, so perhaps better things can be expected this season for the Volkswagen sponsored club, and home town of the Skoda car factory.
With Schranz now at Slavia, Jablonec look even more reliant on Martin Dolezal for their goals, but apart from a half-chance in the 5th minute, well saved by keeper Seda, he had little impact on the game. With Brazilian winger Ewerton, back after a loan spell at Pardubice, catching the eye, Mlada could have won by a much greater margin but had to settle for just three goals, Ewerton bamboozled the left back to set-up an easy finish for Fila, a defensive error enabled Skoda to go around the keeper and roll the ball into the empty net, and finally Skoda’s bullet header from a corner.
For Jablonec, a repeat of a third place finish looks extremely unlikely based on this evidence.
FK Pardubice were one of the surprises of 2020/21, finishing seventh in their first season in the top flight despite having to play all their home matches at Bohemians’ stadium in Prague due to their own ground being deemed not suitable to host Fortuna liga games. Sigma Olomouc were disappointing mid-table. Both teams though served up an entertaining spectacle that would have given their defensive coaches nightmares !
Sigma left-back Veprek,( whose name I am reliably informed translates as piglet ! ) swept home a corner to open the scoring but Pardubice were level in the 20th minute, with Tomil putting the finishing touch on the goal-line to Cihak’s header that was going in anyway. On the stroke of half-time Sigma regained the lead from another corner, Zifcak heading home at the back post.
Right-back Chavtal’s superb defence splitting through ball put Hola clear on goal and he calmly finished between the goalkeeper legs for Sigma’s third goal, which was also a third assist for Chavtal. Hola soon had the ball in the back of the net again, but it was ruled offside as there was only one defender behind him, with the Pardubice goal-keeper well outside his area.
After earlier hitting a post, Pardubice’s Soli reduced the arrears with a neat curling shot from the edge of the penalty box just inside the post, but in the closing stages Sigma had another effort rightly disallowed, Vanacek was clearly offside when he beat keeper Beran to head home.
MFK Karvina and Hradec Kralove are expected to figure in the lower third of the table this season but both sides remained unbeaten after playing out bad-tempered, low quality 1-1 draw.
Dvorak was given the freedom of the new world to turn and fire Hradec into an early lead, but a poor header from Kodes back to his keeper was intercepted by Sinjavskiy who steered the ball past the Hradec keeper to trickle into the net.
Hradec had the better chances in the second half. Vasulin hit the post and Urma, Vlkanova and Vasulin all wasted good chances.
On paper Sparta Prague faced a difficult looking trip to Slovan Liberec, last season’s sixth placed side, but cantered to a 0-5 victory. Although Slovan hade signed veteran full-back Gebre Selassie from Werder Bremen in the summer, they lost their two most dangerous attackers from last season, with Jhon Mosquera signing for Viktoria Plzen and Jakub Pesek going Sparta, and after two games they are still to score.
Predictably Pesek opened the scoring for Sparta but the floodgates only opened after Gebre Selassie was shown a red card for a reckless attempted back-flick that caught Sacek in the face. Sparta ruthlessly exploited the extra man advantage, and their five goals were all scored by different players.
Banik Ostrava bounced back from an opening round loss at Jablonec by sweeping aside Zlin with an impressive display of attacking football, racing into a 4-0 lead after just over 30 minutes. Lischka’s deft header from a corner put Banik on their way, and Sor’s precise placement doubled the lead in the 13th minute. A left footed volley from 12 yards from Lischka made it three and when Almasi steered home the fourth in the roof of the net from a low cross from the right wing, Zlin were shell-shocked.
The barrage continued into the second half, Buchta arrived at the back post to convert another right-wing cross to make it five. The heavens then opened and perhaps doused Banik’s fire. Poznar claimed a consolation goal for Zlin, his deflected shot gave the Banik keeper no chance.
FC Slovacko finished an unlikely fourth place last season to qualify for European football for the first time in their history, and notched their second 1-0 win over the season, this time overcoming Ceske Budejovice in a game which rarely flowed. Kahut’s delightful 20 yard left footed finish was out of context with the rest of the match, although Ceske Budejovice did apply a lot of pressure towards the end of the match as they strove for the equaliser, and were denied by Kalabiska’s athletic goal-line clearance.
Viktoria Plzen had a disappointing 2020/21, eventually finishing fifth after being mid-table for most of the season, but have started this season in a promising fashion, making it two wins out of two with victory at Bohemians, coming from behind to secure the three points. Viktoria needlessly gave away a penalty in the 23rd minutes, which was confidently despatched into the top corner by Puskac. Bohemians returned the favour early in the second half, and long serving Frenchman Jean-David Beauguel sent the keeper the wrong way from the spot. Kacar’s first time 20 yard effort curled into the bottom corner to put Plzen ahead, but Bohemians missed three excellent chances to equalise in the closing stages with the ball somehow failing to cross the line in goalmouth scrambles.
European Competitions
Slavia Prague are yet to play in the Champions League, being seeded direct to the third qualifying round where they will play Ferencvaros. Sparta Prague started in the second qualifying round where they overcame Austrian side Rapid Wien 3-2 on aggregate, thanks to a 2-0 home win in the second leg. They now face Monaco.
Jablonec face Celtic in the third qualifying round in the Europa League, following the Scottish side’s elimination by Danish team FC Midtjylland from the Champions League.
In the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference Viktoria Plzen saw off Dinamo Brest 4-2 on aggregate, winning both legs 2-1 and now face The New Saints in the next round. Slovacko though were eliminated by Lokomotiv Plovdiv, losing a penalty shoot-out after both matches had ended in 1-0 home wins.
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