Striker Tomáš Bobček was delighted with the goal he scored in his national team debut to secure a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland for the Slovakian footballers in the World Cup qualifiers. The 24-year-old Lechie Gdańsk player said in an interview with journalists that he will absorb emotions for a long time. Slavia Prague wanted to buy him in the summer, but he was too expensive for them.
The Slovaks needed to win, a draw would make their promotion plans in Group A very complicated. The video deprived them of two goals, the score was still goalless.
In the 88th minute, coach Francesco Calzona took a risk. Instead of defender Norbert Gyombér, he sent striker Bobček onto the field. It was the debutant who scored the only goal of the game in the first minute of stoppage time following a corner kick by Bénes, unleashing euphoria at the stadium in Košice.
“It was a bit more difficult to kick with my left foot, but I’m glad that it fell there. I saw that the ball was curling towards the penalty spot, it was going to bounce off the field and I can’t go to it from the first,” said the native of Ružomberok.
The Slovaks, replaced by the Spartan Lukáš Haraslín, were assured of a draw and in the case of a win in the last match in Germany, they can win a direct promotion to the championship.
“I’m still absorbing emotions, it’s something big for me. I longed for the first start that I got now. Plus that goal… Maybe in a few days or months I’ll realize what I’ve achieved, but I won’t fly in the stars now,” assured the striker, who is currently the top scorer in the Polish league with nine goals.
In the summer, Slavia Prague wanted to buy him, when they were looking for an alternative for Tomáš Choré, who received a major disciplinary punishment. But the Slovak gunner was too expensive for the Czech master.
“Bobček is a complex striker who we liked extremely much. But Slavia will never pay the 12 million euros for a player that the club said. I won’t say a clear ceiling, but so far we had a psychological threshold of around five million euros, which we haven’t crossed yet. For a player like Bobček, we would probably cross that threshold if we could get him, but not for 12 million euros,” said chairman of the board Jaroslav Tvrdík in the Livesport Daily podcast in August. Slavia then brought in Erik Prekop from Ostrava.
The gunner has now become a Slovak joker. “I told the coach that 10 minutes is enough for me,” Bobček said with a smile. “The fans were so noisy that I didn’t even hear the final whistle for a while. The nervousness that we will have to fight until the last match has disappeared. We are sure of a play-off, but we don’t want to be satisfied with that. We will recover well and fight for direct promotion in Germany,” he added.
Treasurer Haraslín applies to him for money for the first start and at the same time the first goal in the senior national team. “They are good fines, I will gladly pay them,” assured Bobček.
