Pressure that Slavia has not experienced for a long time. How did the autumn match at Feyenoord look like?

Pass, pass, kick and no power. That’s what most of Slavia’s actions looked like in the first half of the Europa League match at Feyenoord Rotterdam. Let’s recap the September game before the quarter-finals on Thursday.

Slavia started in Rotterdam with a very improvised line-up, with the then untested Aiham Ousou in defence due to injuries to others, and substitutes Ubong Ekpai and Stanislav Tecl running around in attack.

The absence of Taras Kacharaba and the offensive mainstays was noticeable. Feyenoord closed the Slavs from the first minute and pressed so hard that the Seychellois had to play everything from the first touch. Neither Barcelona nor Inter Milan had experienced something like that.

The Dutch side created ten chances in the first half, which resulted in several finishes, five positions can be called scoring chances. The score was 2:0, which was still an acceptable result for Slavia considering the course of the game.

The home players were driven by the fans, who put the Slavia players under pressure by cheering loudly in the famous De Kuip Arena. Still, it was clear that the pace of the first half could not be physically sustained by the Rotterdam side for the full ninety minutes.

Feyenoord’s first-half deployment was evident after the change of sides. On the other hand, the physically well-prepared Slavia started to dominate, Tomáš Holeš reduced the deficit, Ivan Schranz had the equaliser, but he only hit the opponent’s defender from a volley.

Prague’s pressure did not lead to an equaliser, on the other hand Feyenoord did not create a single good chance in the second half. Slavia held the ball in 56% of the possession in the final, the home side dominated in shots (12:8) and shots on target (5:4).

So what lessons can we learn from the autumn game? To settle the opening match, not to be distracted by the stormy atmosphere and to turn the line-up a little more offensive after the change of sides and try to strike.

Source:: SK Slavia Praha