Sparta forward Jan Kuchta admitted that the goal against Pilsen, which he scored in the 10th league round to win Sparta 2:1, is very important for his self-confidence.
The Czech international scored for the defending champions for the first time since August 19 and after six competitive matches in which he started. According to Kuchta, the quality of the duel with Pilsen was completely different from last week’s derby with Slavia.
He scored the winning goal in the 27th minute, when he used a pass from Lukáš Sadílek in front of the goal. “For me personally, it was an important moment, I finally scored. In previous matches, I didn’t get chances, but I created space for others, it was visible. Today we got balls, which I knew how to handle. For my self-confidence, that is of course very important,” said the twenty-six-year-old player.
He scored the goal with an “iron”. “We joke in training that when the central midfielder puts the ball on the right or left halfback, he processes it with a so-called iron. It is from the foot to the ground so that the ball has a reverse rotation and can immediately give it to our forwards in front of the goal from the second touch . That’s what we strive for in training. I hit it well. Sáďa found me beautifully and it was all about hitting it well. I think that Jindra Staněk had no chance,” Kuchta declared.
Last Sunday, Sparta drew 1:1 in the derby against Slavia. The match was marked by great emotions, captains Jan Bořil (Slavia) and Ladislav Krejčí (Sparta) received a red card after a fight with each other at the end.
“Today was a completely different match than the previous one. Both teams showed quality, you could see football,” praised the former striker of Bohemians 1905, Liberec, Slavia or Lokomotiv Moscow.
The home team struck after only two minutes of the game thanks to Qazim Laci. “We caught the start perfectly. That’s what we told ourselves in the cabin to catch it like this and it was easier for us,” Kuchta pointed out.
The reigning champions lead the incomplete table by three points ahead of Slavia. Third-placed Plzeň moved away to seven points, but Viktoria played a game less.
“It was a well-deserved victory. Very important three points for us. We knew what we were playing for. There are other important matches ahead of us. We will play in Hradec, there is a trip to Sevilla (Thursday’s Europa League match at the Betis field there). In the league is not an easy opponent, we take all matches seriously in order to play responsibly, sacrifice, gain points and not lose them unnecessarily,” said Kuchta.
