Staropramen Praha beat Olomouc for the second time and is in the semifinals

Superliga of small football knows the first semifinalist. Staropramen Prague, who knocked out Olomouc Mighty Ducks in the quarterfinals of the play-offs, has made it to the top four of the national competition. In the second game the Prague team won 5:3.

Together with the opening triumph 4:3 in Hana, it is a clear qualification. “It was very important that we brought the victory from Hněvotín, but we went there with a broken line-up. We still believed in our quality, but we knew that Olomouc is strong at home, and the smaller pitch doesn’t suit us that well. We showed heart and quality there, even though we lost several times, we were calm.

We now had it in our heads that a draw was theoretically enough, even though we didn’t play for it. It wasn’t visible, but I think the Olomouc players also had it in their heads that they needed to win to go to extra time. The key in this doubleheader was the first win and especially our team and fought back performance,” said Prague defender David Baran.

The opening loss definitely took its toll on the Mighty Ducks. “We were counting on winning something at home and then if we lost, it would go to overtime. We had to be more active, Prague was waiting for our mistakes and could afford to play more from behind,” said Olomouc forward Jakub Hegr.

In the return match Staropramen took the lead in the second minute thanks to Daniel Žížala. “We made two mistakes at the beginning, there was a misunderstanding between the defender and the goalkeeper, and the home team scored the first goal. We didn’t want them to get on the horse and we had to finish,” Hegr sad.

Tomas Rezny equalized in the 17th minute, but Dominik Kostka gave Prague the lead back before the break. “When Olomouc gave us a goal with a stupid play, on the one hand it lulled us a bit. We wanted to play with pressure and liveliness, but after the first goal we were probably weak the whole game,” Baran described.

However, after goals by Ondrej Žežulka and Stanislav Mařík, Staropramen led by three goals with ten minutes to go, a lead they would not relinquish.

“We had some quality, we had more chances. On the one hand, we expected a more mature performance from ourselves, in some phases we should have held the ball more and taken advantage of the big pitch at Motorlet, on the other hand, we managed it, which is very important for us. Our goal was to at least reach the semi-finals because we’ve been rebuilding the squad this year, so we’re very happy. It wasn’t quite the same, but history doesn’t ask for performance,” smiled the Prague quarterback.

In the Olomouc jersey, Hegr corrected the situation with his first Super League goal. “Coach Tomáš Zeman always pulls me out as a joker when he needs help to complete the team. I enjoyed the quarter-final, I’m happy for the goal and when I get the opportunity I will always leave my best on the field,” promised the Olomouc striker.

Both captains, the home team’s Mařík and the visiting Lukáš Kaďorek adjusted the score at the end. “All the guys said that we gave a great performance. If there were two more of us, because Honza Tögel or Vojta Pazdera couldn’t participate, we might have gotten a better result and the game went into overtime. From a football point of view, however, we feel good about it, the overall impression of the game is good and we are satisfied with what we did in the double match, especially in Prague,” added Hegr.

Staropramen lost in the quarter-finals to Jihlava last year, but now they have a sure fight for the medals and on Monday they will find out their semi-final opponent from the pair Most-Blansko.

“We want to win the competition. I won’t make an alibi that the semi-finals are enough for us. We are trying to take baby steps and we had a fantastic autumn. We struggled to get some games together in the spring, but the team is settling down and I think we have a good skeleton. As Staropramen we have to have the highest goals, especially after last season which didn’t go our way, we had an up and down game there.

I believe we can grab a win this year and we’ll see if it’s Most or Blanensko in the semi-finals. We don’t speculate, we want to go to the final in Boskovice, our U23 team will go there to win too and we want two titles. We won’t hide behind anything, we have to have ambition, it’s visible in the composition of the national team, where we have five guys from our team,” Baran encouraged.

Staropramen Praha – Olomouc Mighty Ducks 5::3 (2::1)

Goals and assists:: 2. Zížala, 24. Kostka (Verner), 38. Žežulka (Kostka), 50. S. Mařík (Žížala), 55. S. Mařík (Kostka) – 17. Režný (Hegr), 52. Hegr (Kaďorek), 58. Referee:: Šik – Novotný. Penalty::: Verner (Prague). First match 4::3, Staropramen Praha advances.

Staropramen Praha:: Tomáš Bezstarosti (Jakub Pospíšil) – Dominik Kostka, Ondřej Žežulka, Miroslav Verner, Václav Socher, David Baran, Stanislav Marík (C), Jindřich Novotný, Daniel Žížala, Pavel Šultes.

Olomouc Mighty Ducks:: Marek Kalina (Tomáš Zeman) – Marek Pešák, Jan Kudlička, Michal Galus, Lukáš Kaďorek (C), Jan Šuba, Tomáš Režný, Jakub Hegr, Tomáš Malenda.

Author: Jaroslav Kára