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Two beers, bago on the playground. And then we put Lyon’s Four at Summer!

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“I will not forget the dry February evening of 2002 at Sparta Stadium for the rest of my life. My then teammates Honza Nezmar, Jirka Štajner, Vašek Koloušek or Tonda Kinský jakbysmet. Liberec and I shot 4: 1 of the reigning French champion Olympique Lyon and advanced to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup, the predecessor of the current European League. Success was based on performance, it was no coincidence. The opening duel in Lyon (1: 1), which many Czech football journalists rank among among the best outdoor performances of the Czech team in the history of European cups, was excellent in terms of play.

I recently remembered the clashes with Lyon during a phone call with coach Josef Csaplár, who was then led by Slovan with Ladislav Škorpil. He evaluated the derby of the Prague S for Sport.cz, among other things, he commented on the opinion in the media that Sparta intentionally played over the defender Ousou. It is said that he was the weaker of Slavia, a couple from Stoper. He just laughed and told me: Sparta doesn’t have such clever players. Koloušek and Štajner would have to play for her. When we went to Lyon, Olympique beat PSG three zero three days before at home. In the cabin, I told you: Lyon has a weakness of the extreme back. But the guy had fifty national team starts.

Lyon had no competition in France at the time, winning seven titles in a row. And we faced retaliation a step since his elimination. We slept at the famous hotel Prague in Hanspaulka. But we didn’t make the battles with Lyon a science again. We had successful matches with Liverpool, we were not good. On the contrary, we drove according to a proven scenario. After dinner one, two beers in the room, after breakfast bago. At that time we occupied one of the playgrounds on Hanspaulka, the balloons ran away to Kotlářka. The worst of the bag was wished to the others for lunch.

“Gentlemen, it doesn’t matter who stands against us. Yeah, they’re good, but we’re going to push our football. As usual, stick to this: I fly like a butterfly on the field and score like a wasp, “Csaplár told us at a subsequent tactical meeting.

However, we were faced with a team full of representatives of France (Carriére, Coupet, Brechet, Luyindula), Brazil (Edmílson, Sony Anderson, Juninho), plus the great Belgian Deflandre or the excellent Cameroonian Foe, who died of heart failure a year later during the FIFA Confederations Cup semifinals. We shocked them after a few seconds when Nezmič hit. Olympique, however, quickly countered his head around the corner, holding the result 1: 1 for a long time.

After an hour, coach Csaplár told me to go and run. I headed to the right under the main grandstand, where Juninho was warming up for a while. Current sports director Olympique. When our eyes met, we smiled at each other and greeted each other. Then he set his palm, slapped me. This guy the whole world knew! Great boy, I will never forget his gesture.

We ran into the field together later. And things started to happen. In three minutes, Stájna’s head prevailed, followed by Nezmič. I planted a wound in Lyon’s neck. Nemmič passed me a small lime from the right, I shoved it under Coupet’s lid.

Summer was in incredible euphoria. As we walked around the winning wheel, I noticed a classmate from the Honza gymnasium in the auditorium. He suggested I throw his jersey at him. He says he still has it. Perhaps it can no longer smell sweat, but only the smell of that wonderful summer evening … “

Soccer editor Robert Neumann has been involved in sports journalism since 2003. He has been writing for Právo and Sport.cz for eight years. He was at the world championships, at European championships, and regularly reports on the matches of Czech clubs in the league and on the European scene. He used to be a professional footballer, he worked in Bohemians, Jablonec and Liberec, with whom he won the championship in 2002.

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