10/2/1996! This date was written not only in the sports history of the city of Brno, but also in the entire Czech football. Over 40,000 fans watched the home team’s duel with Slavia Prague!
In 1996, football fever hit Brno
Where are the times? Although it was not an advertisement for football, the match of the highest football league between the home team Brno and Slavia Prague was indelibly written in the history of Czech football.
On October 2, 1996, over 44,000 spectators crammed into the then stadium in Lužánky. The fans then created a backdrop that, years later, seems to be from another world. Therefore, let’s recall the shots that must please the eye of every football fan.
The beginning of the Gambrinus league in the 1996/1997 season was caught up in the then Brno football fever. Brno Boby led the league after seven rounds and in the next match hosted the previous champion from Slavia Prague.
The match between Brno and Slavia Prague went down in the history of the Czech league
Although the crowds of fans in the stands cheered the home team from the first minute, visiting Pavel Novotný cooled down the crazy atmosphere already in the third minute of the match. The Slavia midfielder took advantage of Robert Vágner’s back pass on the edge of the goal area and cleared the ball with a ground shot into the net.
The people of Prague then switched to a lower level and zealously defended their lead. Driven by the amazing scenery, the home players used this to put a lot of pressure, during which goalkeeper Stejskal or the structure of his goal saved the visiting team.
However, the team from Brno gave the roaring stadium an opportunity to celebrate the home team’s goal, when 15 minutes before the end of the match Richard Dostálek opened the net for the visitors. The score did not change until the end of the match, so both teams parted amicably 1:1.
Over 44,000 fans still hold the league record
When the announcer called up the number of spectators in the stadium towards the end of the match, it was clear that this was a special day for football. 44,120 paying spectators was not only a season record for home team Brno, but it still holds the lead in the entire league.
It must be added that the visits to the Brno stadium were legendary and Lužánky hold the top twenty ranks of the twenty most attended matches in the league. Now the stadium is in a desolate state and although the city representatives are trying to restore the magnificence of the football stand, property disputes do not ease the situation at all.
It is so clear that, at least in the next few years, footage from the match described above will only be a memory in the hearts of fans within our football. The largest stadium in the domestic league is owned by Slavia Prague, whose capacity is less than 20 thousand spectators.
Source: Youtube, CSFotbal
