Slavia managed a crucial match against Maccabi Haifa. How does Jindřich Trpišovský evaluate the match?

The Sixers outplayed the Israeli champion for most of the game and created far more chances overall. However, the result of the match was decided by a single goal by Jan Kuchta and therefore the game was played with great intensity until the end. Slavia didn’t take advantage of their other chances and the last ten minutes belonged to Maccabi, who brought the otherwise calm Jindřich Trpišovský off the bench.

However, the coach of Slavia could finally breathe a sigh of relief as his charges did not let the one-goal lead slip away and scored an important 3 points. Thanks to this, Slavia jumped to the second place in the group and their promotion fate is in their hands.

The match might have been much calmer if the referee had ordered a clear penalty in favour of Slavia right at the start of the match. But it didn’t happen. Goalkeeper Cohen’s goal was difficult to conquer. After half an hour of play, Peter Olayinka had a chance, finishing with a fantastic scissor kick, but his shot was blocked by a defender.

The visitors got a big opportunity late in the first half after losing Daniel Samek. A quick counter-attack had to be dealt with by Aleš Mandous, who incidentally kept his first clean sheet in a Slavia jersey.

The goal came after the half-time break! In the 49th minute, after a centre from the left side, Bah finished the shot, Cohen saved it, but it was not enough to finish Kuchta’s shot. The goal itself was probably preceded by a foul by Lukáš Masopust. Could it be that the referee was compensating for a penalty that wasn’t given? Or did he simply lack quality? It’s hard to say, anyway the goal was fortunately valid for Slavia.

Slavia created two more big chances during the second act. After a poor finish by Traoré, Bah hit the crossbar! Then Michael Krmenčík found himself in a 100% scoring position, but Cohen saved it. The end belonged to the guests and the Slavs defended the result with their teeth.

Jindřich Trpišovský’s assessment

“The fans saw good football up and down. There could have been more chances on our side. We entered the second half well, we scored a goal. We didn’t want to defend the result, we had to make changes. It was hectic at the end, but the victory was well deserved.”

“Zeros are important for the players. For me it’s important that we win games. The performance of the team is going up. It’s important for the goalkeepers and the stoppers. The chances after mistakes are decreasing. I’m happy for the guys, it’s impressive how they’re handling it. Huge compliments.”

“If we hadn’t won, I think we would have had our chances for promotion. It was important for us to be in the game. We know what our schedule is. We have to do our home games winning and we will see what the situation will be for the last game, which will be very difficult.”

“The percentage of Czech players is very visible in the performance. They have experience, they have played a lot here, so they know different situations on the pitch. The guys know what it’s about. They have to sacrifice something for the result and count the shots after the game.”

The Slavia coach also praised the performance of the Ousou-Kačaraba stopper duo, whom he sees as a great progression in performance. He also praised Lukáš Masopust, who was really visible in the match, he was visually good technically and running.

The Sešivan’s win is also valuable from the point of view of Czech football, as it means a gain of 0.400 points in the coefficient ranking.

Sources: Livesport, SK Slavia Praha, Sport 1