From the beginning, the coaching staff of Slavia bet mainly on the players, who did not travel anywhere during the international break. “There were about eight guys left with us who were in the classic training rhythm,” mentioned Köstl. Jan Bořil, Václav Jurečka, Jakub Hromada, Conrad Wallem and other members of the Czech vice-champion squad, who were not affected by their duties in the national teams, played from the first minute. But the match did not develop according to the favorite’s ideas, so Christos Zafeiris, Lukáš Provod or Lukáš Masopust entered the game one after the other.
As it happens, the representatives returned in different ways. “Especially with Zafi (Zafeiris) and Oscar, we had a problem. They played on Tuesday, Osky didn’t return until Thursday, they both had an individual regimen until the day of the game,” outlined Köstl. “Hats off to Zafi, how he handled it in the second half,” recalled the young Noro’s start in the second half.
Due to health problems, Czech representatives David Douděra and Tomáš Holeš watched the match from the stands. “He feels tired discomfort, especially Tomáš has minor health problems, he has them with the attractor. It’s quite likely that he won’t even fly with us to Moldova,” Köstl hinted at Holeš’s possible absence in the next Europa League game on Thursday against Sheriff Tiraspol. For Slavia, the loss of a key defensive leader would be very painful. Before that, he was last absent from the red and white during the defeat with Pilsen.
The match against the last team in the league table was scored by Mojmír Chytil, who was hit by Lukáš Provod’s cross from a free kick. “I was giving it with my knee, even if I don’t know it myself,” laughed Chytil. “I went to the space where I’m supposed to go. I was in the right place at the right time,” added the 24-year-old forward.
Chytil was the only player in Slavia’s starting line-up who played for the national team. “I felt good. I played five, maybe ten minutes in Olomouc (against Moldova). I wasn’t tired, I arrived in good shape. That the coach put me up is a question for him. But of course I’m happy,” explained the fighter with the thirteenth on his back.
Slavia scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute, having missed several opportunities until then. “The boys want to score, it’s about dealing with those situations. We prepared a lot of things well, but the final was not what it should have been. Sometimes we outplayed it, there were few shots in the first half. We could have finished in goal, but we didn’t succeed. We lacked a bit of directness, on the contrary, the preparation phase was sometimes too rushed,” Köstl calculated the shortcomings.
He also mentioned the lawn, which, according to him, did not help the stitchers at all. “You could probably see that he was not in optimal condition. I don’t know if it’s the weather, it started to freeze at night, but then again, I’m not such an expert. However, it was one of the reasons that made the match difficult for us, although I didn’t want to mention it,” Köstl said.
