I’m convinced we can beat them and advance, says Stetina after returning from injury

Sparta lost their first Champions League qualification match to Rapid 1:2. It was also the first really tough game in months for Lukáš Štetina, who has been battling injuries for a long time.

Sparta experienced a match of two different halves. In the first one they scored a goal and were more dangerous, after the changeover they defended more and scored twice.

“We started the best we could. Even in the rest of the first half we didn’t let them do anything and we deservedly led. In the second half, however, we didn’t create much, we crawled a bit and weren’t as active. That was a disadvantage for us,” said Štetina in an interview for the club’s website.

Sparta clearly ran out of energy in the second half. It dragged its feet, its front players did not press as expected and the reaction from Pavel Vrba came too late.

“We were terribly deep and there were moments when the opponent found our sixteen and no one stepped up to him. We made it difficult for ourselves in this one.”

But even Rapid’s pressing was not at the level expected. Sparta used it to their advantage several times, especially in the first half, and once they outplayed the opponent’s defence with one touch, and a Rapid defender had to put it all out with a yellow card foul.

“I was expecting worse, they did well on the bench in the game. We were able to cope with it, especially in the first half we had a lot of chances. In the second half it seemed we couldn’t cope with them.”

Sparta couldn’t recover from the second goal and not only didn’t squeeze the opponent, they didn’t even threaten the goal in the last ten minutes.

“We all wanted it badly, but we couldn’t create pressure towards the end and get a chance to equalise. Instead of pressure, we didn’t even get a shot off. I’m convinced that it is in our power to beat them and advance,” concluded Stetina.

Source: AC Sparta Praha