Slovácko robbed of points? The match against Kolín was lost also because of bad verdicts of the referee

After a 3-3 draw at home in the opening match of the Conference Europa League, Slovácko came to Cologne to try to surprise the home favourites. The team near Uherské Hradiště tried hard throughout the match, but in the end left with a 2:4 defeat. Unfortunately, there were a couple of wrong verdicts by the referee that affected the match.

Right after the opening whistle Slovácko could surprisingly take the lead against the favourite. After 13 seconds of play, Doski got a shot, which just missed. It could have been interesting a moment later when Duda drove forward into the opposing team with a sliding peg.

The referee only gave a yellow card for the foul, but if there was VAR in the Conference Europe League, Cologne would probably be playing with ten players from the start. Unfortunately, the lightning start passed as quickly as it started. Cologne took over the game and it showed.

The German side easily converted a corner kick in the 10th minute, from which the first goal fell. Kilian got a header and his header was headed into the net by Sargis Adamjan.

However, Slovácko did not give up. After about half an hour of play, Havlik got a shot on goal, which missed the opponent’s goal. Already in the first half there was a substitution, Slovácko injured Danicek, who was replaced by Brecka.

Towards the end of the half Cologne came back again. Dietz zigzagged in the whitewash and exchanged the ball with a teammate, but the shot went wide. After a while, a corner kick was played in, from which the home team struck. It was Florian Deitz who pushed away a Slovácko defender and had no problem with the finish.

The first half ended 2: 0 for Cologne, but Slovácko did not let it end. From the beginning of the second half they pushed forward and it paid off. After a good clearance, Petržela ran at the home goal, shot, but hit only the defender. Jan Kalabiška got to the deflected ball and hit it under the crossbar to give Slovácko hope.

Shortly after the goal, Maina from Kolín was shown a yellow card. It was a foul when he stepped on Hofmann’s achilles, but again it could have been a card of a different colour. After a while, Slovácko had a chance again. After some confusion in the whitewash, Milan Petržela got to the deflected ball, and with a beautiful shot he equalised at 2: 2.

Both goals were scored within four minutes. However, this was not enough for the Czech team, they went on and it could have been even more joyful, but the referee was against it. He refused to blow the whistle for a clear foul on Kalabiska in the penalty area, and after further protests he also issued yellow cards to Trávník and Slovácko coach Martin Svědík.

This was the referee’s several verdict that VAR might not agree with. This decision derailed Slovácko’s players, and the home team got back into the game. They were relieved by a penalty, which was now correctly awarded. Dejan Ljubicic converted it and gave Kolin the lead back.

After ten minutes, Kolín even got their two-goal lead back. After losing the ball, they went on the counter-attack, which they used in an exemplary manner when two attacking players jumped on the sent ball after a pass from Maina. It was hit by Ljubicic, who scored his second goal of the game.

After the sixth goal of the match, nothing more happened to threaten the home or away goal. Slovácko lost 2:4, but they were definitely not the worse team. After two games, they have only one point and are in last place in Group D. Cologne, on the other hand, moved up to first place after the win.

Source: UEFA