Pavle, you scored an assist on the first goal. How much did he calm you down?
Much. The first ten minutes from our side were not exactly ideal. Aberdeen had nothing to lose and the boys looked like they were just going to play football. But the goal calmed us down and we played the game very well both forward and backward. Maybe we could have looked after it more, held the ball longer, but we are satisfied.
Is advancing to the round of 16 of the Conference League an accomplished goal?
Honestly, I didn’t even know that if we didn’t win, we would already have more games in January. We won’t play them like this until February, which is nice. We will shorten our schedule by two games and we can focus more on the league, where we have a lot to catch up on.
You finished third in the overall competition table. Are you also talking about the overall victory?
It’s tricky to talk about. We know how good the teams in the Conference League are. It will depend on who we get and how it all plays out. We have big ambitions, but I certainly don’t want to announce anything. We are in the round of 16 and the next goal is to advance again.
Compared to the weekend against Aberdeen, you were productive, don’t you agree?
You are right. We had a lot of chances against Liberec and we didn’t convert them. But it is often true that the match is about the first goal. This time it helped us, it’s just a shame we didn’t add a third goal at the end of the first half when Albion Rrahmani went at the keeper alone. It would be even more peaceful.
Sports director Tomáš Rosický mentioned before the match that the performance fluctuations that bother you during the season can be related to the loss of motivation in some players. What do you think?
I personally have a huge motivation. I came back to make a title with Sparta. The position in the table is not pretty yet and I don’t see it well. But we have to do everything to turn things around for the better in the spring.
