Bohemians and cups? Before the season, the Kangaroos might have laughed at this, but now they are realistically in the running for the preliminary rounds of the European Cups. The dream season of the green and white got another cherry.
Bohemians already performed decently in the fall, the team was mainly driven by Roman Květ and Petr Hronek. They ended the first half of the season in seventh place with a loss of only two points to fourth Sigma, but also only four points ahead of 13th České Budějovice.
When the mainstays Květ and Hronek left in the winter, the fans probably thought about saving Bohemians as soon as possible. But the opposite happened, the Kangaroos started a cup run.
The beginning of spring was great, there were wins over Teplice and Hradec Králové. But then came a slight depression when Bohemka was defeated by Sparta 6:2 and the Kangaroos lost 0:1 in Budějovice as well.
However, they quickly recovered from that, drew with Zbrojovka, advanced to the semi-finals in the cup over Slovácko and successively defeated Liberec, Pardubice and finally Plzeň.
A win on the soil of the reigning champion is very valuable. The Kangaroos were losing 0:1, but they managed to turn things around. In the 53rd minute, they tied the game at 1:1, and even though young Kadlec saw red in the 80th minute and finished with ten minutes left, Köstl’s winning goal came instead of conceding.
After 24 rounds, Bohemians are proud of fourth place in the table with 38 points. However, so does Slovácko, the green and whites are better off with the score.
Where to the cups?
Now the Kangaroos have two ways to get to the cups. The first, probably less realistic, is through the Mol Cup. In the semi-finals, they have to knock out Slavia in Eden and in the final they have to beat the better of the Sparta/Česká Budějovice pair.
This will be a very demanding task, but for Bohemians, the way also opens up in the league. If the Kangaroos keep fourth place, which is not unrealistic with the current form, and Budějovice do not win the cup, they will also fall to fourth place in the preliminary rounds.
Currently, the top three teams of the Fortuna League and the winner of the cup will play Europe in the summer. However, if the winner of the cup finishes in the first three places, the right to participate in the European cups passes to the fourth team of the Fortuna league. And given the fact that both Slavia and Sparta will finish in the first three positions and are the biggest favorites to win the cup, it is quite likely.
That’s the way for Bohemians. However, in order for the Kangaroos to keep their dream fourth place, they must also start collecting points at home. The kangaroos are suffering from a completely opposite problem than Slavia.
At home, Bohemians got only 13 points from 12 matches and are the third worst in the league in this aspect, only Zbrojovka got fewer points at home, Zlín has the same number. But outside, that’s a different story.
On the away pitches, Bohemka is the second best in the league, having brought 25 points from 12 matches, thus leaving Pilsen and Slavia behind in this table. Only Sparta got 2 more points.
It is actually a bit of a paradox that the fourth team in the league cannot collect points at home and is the third worst in this aspect. It’s always harder to win away from home, but Bohemians have found a recipe.
Source: Fortuna liga, Bohemians 1905
