Prague – The weekend 13th round of the football league will offer another of the highlights of the autumn program. On Sunday, starting at 18:30, the third Plzeň will welcome defending champion Sparta, which is in second place in the table, six points behind Slavia. The leader of the table hosts the newcomer Dukla in the Prague derby on the same day.
In the last round, Sparta beat Liberec 2:1 and won after two defeats, but on Wednesday they suffered a 0:5 debacle in the Champions League at Manchester City. “We realize how important and difficult Sunday’s match will be, only one point separates us in the table. Two really good teams will meet, who also traveled for cups. We are very motivated to get a good result in Pilsen, as now it is the most important match in season,” said Letenské’s assistant coach Tim Sparv.
Viktoria is good at Sparta at home, since 2012 it has lost once in 15 league matches and won eight of the last nine duels. In March, she outclassed her 4:0, but two months later she lost to her in the Štrunco orchards in the cup final. The West Bohemians go into the match after Thursday’s 2:2 draw in the Europa League at PAOK Thessaloniki, where they lost a two-goal lead.
“From the point of view of the load, the match with PAOK cost us a lot of strength. But neither the result nor the end of the match can hurt us. I think that the knowledge that we led the match in the right direction can only strengthen us. I believe that we can handle the match,” said coach Viktorie Miroslav Koubek, who in the past caught for Sparta and was an assistant there.
The duel of the 2nd round of the Europa League is also in the legs of the Slavists, who lost 0:1 in Bilbao. The Vršovice team suffered only their second defeat out of 18 competitive matches in the season, so they want to return to the winning streak against Dukla. Coach Jindřich Trpišovský will probably make several changes in the lineup, defenders Tomáš Holeš and David Zima were troubled by intestinal problems.
“We will make a decision on Saturday based on the current situation. As I spoke with the boys, it was not as demanding in terms of running as before in Jablonec. We will see, we don’t want to make too many changes, but we offer to give a chance to the boys who made an impact from the bench against Bilbao. It is nice, that we have a lead, but I don’t want to look at the scoreboard at all. We have to keep winning,” emphasized Trpišovský.
In the last round, Dukla turned around an important home match against Pardubice, the 2:1 win was secured by striker Jakub Řezníček with his 100th league goal. The thirteenth team in the table has nothing to lose in Eden.
“We are facing another opponent from a strong trio, which is behind the rest of the league. We lost against Pilsen and Sparta, but we will definitely not go to Slavia to give up the match. That would be bad, there must be fighting spirit and determination. And also the knowledge that every match starts from zero,” said Dukla coach Petr Rada, former coach of Slavia.
The fourth Czech Cup representative, Mladá Boleslav, will also play on Sunday. Central Bohemia didn’t do well on Thursday either, they lost 0:1 to Lugano at home and remained without a point in the Conference League. They will want to end their seven-game wait for a competitive triumph against eighth-ranked Karviná, who have lost only one of the last seven rounds.
“We are not going through an easy period, seven games without a win is a lot. It hurts me, the players, everyone in the club. But at the same time, I believe that we will break through it soon, we are still sticking together,” assured coach Andreas Brännström, whose charges are up to tenth in the table.
Sunday’s program will start at 1:00 p.m. with a duel between Teplice and Bohemians 1905. Four matches will also be played on Saturday. Fourth-ranked Ostrava will try to win again after two rounds, Baník will be the favorite on the field of penultimate Pardubice. The table-balanced duel will be seen in Olomouc, where the fifth Sigma will welcome the sixth Jablonec.
The last České Budějovice will try again for the first win in the league season at home against Hradec Králové. The program of the 13th round will start on Saturday from 13:30 with the match between Liberec and Slovácko.
Sport football 13th round 1st league OPENER
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
