Slavia will face Panathinaikos, but not for the first time. 21 years ago it was prevented from qualifying for the Champions League

Slavia Prague will play Panathinaikos in the opening match of the 3rd round of the Conference Europa League on Thursday. They have already played the Athens club in the qualifying phase of the European Cup. In 2001, the red and green and white squared off at the gates of promotion to the most prestigious club competition.

Twenty-one years ago, the Susians finished second in the Gambrinus League behind Sparta and were able to compete for the Champions League. To participate in its main stage, they needed to get past a favoured team that is still one of the most famous in Greek history.

Slavia played their first match on 8 August at Strahov, but did not take advantage of the home crowd. After the visiting Liberopoulos and Karagounis scored, Pavel Kuka only reduced it to 1: 2 in the 69th minute. Moreover, in the end, after the exclusion of goalkeeper Černý, the field player Richard Dostálek had to go to the goal, because coach Pesice had already used up all three substitutions.

The rematch, which took place a fortnight later in the capital of Greece, was no more cheerful for Slavic and Czech football as a whole. This time the Prague team did not score any goals, so Panathinaikos only needed Basinas’ penalty from the 27th minute to secure their progress.

“I was in Slavia for a while, so I didn’t even realize how disappointing it was for the club. I didn’t realise it until two years later with Vigo,” midfielder Patrik Gedeon, for whom it was his debut in a Vršovice club jersey after transferring from Blšany, recalled in an iDNES.cz article.

Even in the aforementioned encounter with Celta Vigo in the summer of 2003, Slavia did not get the dream promotion to the Champions League. After a 0:3 away defeat, a 2:0 home win was not enough to make the big dream come true.

It became a reality four years later, when the Seychellois, after beating Ajax Amsterdam, made their first trip to the preliminary group of the prestigious competition. Now, under the guidance of Jindřich Trpišovský, they will try to get past Panathinaikos Athens to feed their hopes of participating in the Europa League.

Source:: iDNES.cz, SK Slavia Prague