A glimpse into the past: Slavia won in Istanbul, where they first played the European Cup 19 years ago. And went through hell

Winning on hot ground in Istanbul, Turkey is always a valuable entry in history. Slavia managed to do it by winning the second round of the Conference League after a 3:2 result against Fenerbahce. When the Red and Whites made their first appearance on hot Turkish soil nineteen years ago, they went through hell. “It was almost a matter of life,” admits Karel Piták, the team’s mainstay at the time.

It could have been a great glory, only a sense of injustice remained. In February 2003, Slavia Prague faced Besiktas Istanbul of Turkey in the knockout part of the UEFA Cup, but failed to get past them after results of 1:0 and 2:4.

“We won at home 1::0 with a goal by Tomáš Došek, in Istanbul we were down 0::4 with twenty minutes to go and everything seemed clear,” recalls Karel Piták.

But then everything got confused… “Ríša Dostálek converted a penalty kick, Tomáš Hrdlička scored after a corner, and suddenly we were one shot short of advancing, the away goal rule was in force then,” recalls the national midfielder.

And he entered the match in a fundamental way. “In injury time I kicked a standard from a long distance, somewhere behind the half,” he recalls. “I missed it a bit, but the ball went over the goalkeeper and ended up in the net. But the referee ruled out some nonsensical offside and the goal was disallowed,” he shakes his head even after all these years. “It was a bit of a setback, it was a perfectly legitimate goal,” he refuses to accept the wrong decision.

However, the Slávista team was probably not hurt by this, as Turkish fans can be very passionate. It might have been a matter of life…

“It’s possible, it was very stormy,” admits Piták. “Even before the match it was very noisy, in February snow fell in Istanbul, they threw balls at us. It was wild,” he says. “If the goal had been conceded, I really don’t know what would have happened, how it would have turned out,” he is afraid to even guess what would have happened.

The sense of damage, however, has not gone away. “For us, of course, it was very emotional, we felt a huge injustice,” Piták repeats. “I’ve never seen Pavel Kuka so angry. If we hadn’t held him, I don’t know what he would have done to the referee…” he returns to the 19-year-old incident.

His followers didn’t succumb to the stormy atmosphere, thanks to a spirited and responsible performance they won 3:2 at Fenerbahce Istanbul.