match thread (image) [FT] Slavia Prague 1 - 1 (Helander 36)

[ian1964 10,724]

[ian1964 10,724]

 

 

[26th of foot 6,084]

43 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

I believe the plane's call sign is, 'Bear Force One'?

[SteveC 150]

10 hours ago, Gribz said:

I agree with OP that this one will be toughest challenge so far. Over two legs Im confident. I could see a 0-0 away from home but a 1-1 would be great to get the away goal.

 

Hopefully the players have been in the sauna sweating all the beers out of them from the weekend.

Anyone of us whom I've seen today look as though they missed their sauna appointments.

 

Not that it'll have any effect on my love for them all!

Edited March 10, 2021 by SteveC

[Biblio 148]

I think this will be a tough tie. They did not get this far by being crap and their result against Leicester was one that none of the English press saw coming. All I wanted this season was to win the league, that was always the main objective. Now that has been done anything else is a bonus. I'm really hoping for a bonus though.

[Gonzo79 15,294]

I watched both their ties against Inter Milan a year or so ago and they looked a good side (deserved a win at the San Siro but lost a late equaliser).

 

I have no doubts they're a big step up from Antwerp and not far off Benfica standard.  This will be very tough and I hope the players are ready for it.

 

'Mon The Rangers!  ??

[JohnMc 2,766]

After the weekend I'd be amazed if our players are as prepared as we'd like them to be. I don't think the drinking will make any difference, that will be long out of their system by Thursday, but I suspect mentally their focus this season has been achieving the title, with that now accomplished we'll see if they can maintain the focus and energy or if things might start to drift. 

[Frankie 8,570]

 

[ranger_syntax 4,330]

13 hours ago, JohnMc said:

After the weekend I'd be amazed if our players are as prepared as we'd like them to be. I don't think the drinking will make any difference, that will be long out of their system by Thursday, but I suspect mentally their focus this season has been achieving the title, with that now accomplished we'll see if they can maintain the focus and energy or if things might start to drift. 

The team will be focused on Europe.

 

The remaining domestic matches are the problem. 

[Uilleam 5,948]

Here's a football article. 

I wonder if this kind of thing will catch on? 

I do hope so.

 

FOOTBALL

Tomas Soucek’s old side are Jürgen Klopp clones

Paul Forsyth

Thursday March 11 2021, 12.01am, The Times

Champions League

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tomas-souceks-old-side-are-juergen-klopp-clones-70wmckbbd

 

Runaway leaders of their domestic league, with advanced full backs that operate as auxiliary wingers and a manager who is inspired by Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp: there will be shades of Rangers about the Slavia Prague team that lines up in the Sinobo Stadium tonight.

Klopp clones seem to be popping up all over Europe but Jindrich Trpisovsky does not mind the comparison. A charismatic, open-minded coach who had no playing career to speak of, he plays energetic football, takes inspiration from the British game and even wears a baseball cap on the touchline.

 

More importantly, he has backed it up with results. Since taking over three years ago, Trpisovsky, 45, has led Slavia to two straight league titles and is well on course for a third. His team are 11 points clear of second-placed Sparta Prague. Yet to taste defeat in the league, they have dropped points in only four of their 22 matches and have been scoring at a rate of nearly three a game.

 

Slavia’s improvement is just as apparent in Europe. In his first full season Trpisovsky took them to the Europa League quarter-finals, where they lost to Chelsea. Last season, they took points off Barcelona and Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Since a disappointing defeat by Midtjylland in this season’s Champions League qualifying rounds they have beaten Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League group stage and, most impressively, knocked out Leicester City in the round of 32. It is all heading in the right direction for Slavia whose improvement off the pitch is another parallel with Rangers. Less than a decade ago, they were on their knees, drowning in debt and without a stadium to call their own, but Chinese owners stabilised the club when they took over in 2015.

 

While they have ploughed in money, it has been sensible investment, intended to develop the club’s infrastructure. With a little help from Trpisovsky, who has brought several players from his former club, Slovan Liberec, they have eschewed big-money signings in favour of emerging talent with the potential to earn them a hefty profit. Their most expensive acquisition is Nicolae Stanciu, a team-mate of Rangers’ Ianis Hagi in the Romania national side. In 2019, they paid £3.6 million for the former Anderlecht midfielder, six months after he cost Al-Ahli nearly three times that.

By recruiting wisely, developing talent and reinvesting in the squad, Slavia hope to become a regular presence in the Champions League group stage. Last year they sold Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal to West Ham United for £19m and £5m respectively but some at the Czech club feel the two players were worth more.

 

A much bigger fee will be demanded for their latest asset, a 19-year-old Senegalese winger who was playing in France’s regional leagues last season. Signed for Slavia’s B team in July, Abdallah Sima was given his first-team debut in September and has made such an impact that the rangy wide man is being compared with Thierry Henry. Jaroslav Tvrdik, the Slavia president, says that Arsenal, Juventus and West Ham, all of whom have been credited with an interest, must start the bidding at £45m.

On the opposite wing to Sima is Peter Olayinka, a highly-rated Nigeria international. Stanciu and Lukas Provod, a midfielder with a sweet left foot, offer a variety of deliveries at set plays. And goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar is another tipped for a big-money move.

 

Slavia have a proud history. When Rangers show up at their stadium tonight they will find that one of the stands is named after Johnny Madden, a former Celtic player who became the club’s first manager in 1905 and is seen by many as the father of Czech football. They have won 20 league titles. They reached the semi-finals of the 1996 Uefa Cup and supplied a handful of the players who reached the Euro 96 final.

Czech teams have consistently reached the Europa League knockout phase and Sparta Prague thrashed Celtic home and away this season. Tonight Rangers will face a free-scoring team that bears quite a resemblance to themselves. Will they meet their match?