Vrba on the line-up and the quality of the opponent. How is Dočkal?

Sparta will enter the group stage of the Europa League on Thursday and will face the champions Brondby in Denmark. What did Pavel Vrba say at the pre-match press conference?

Brondby are struggling from the start of the season, only eighth and six points behind the top four. Perhaps the only positive is the win over Midtjylland at the end of August.

“We have seen them play in a few games. They rotated a 3-5-2 formation and on a classic four defenders. We’ll see what they come at us with. They definitely have more systems in place. I personally got a lot out of the game against Midtjylland.”

Brondby is the biggest outsider in the group. They won the Danish league last year, but several of their mainstays have left and Sparta need to get at least four points from their games if they want to advance to the knockout stage.

“The way I see it, the group has one big favourite – Lyon. It’s a bit different than with Rapid and Monaco. It’s a three-month competition. And the way we look at it, what we lose at the beginning, it’s hard to make up for at the end.”

Sparta failed in their first game after the national break, losing 2:3 in Plzeň after a poor performance and dropping the West Czechs to the top of the table. Basically nothing worked for Letná.

“There will definitely be some changes. But I won’t tell you the line-up here. I can only tell you that we will not play with the same line-up as in Plzeň.”

Captain Bořek Dočkal, who recovered from his injury faster than expected, flew with the team to Denmark. His creativity has been visibly lacking in Sparta’s recent matches.

“He has been preparing with us without restrictions for about three days now. He will try out the pre-match training and we will discuss together whether he will start or not. We also brought him here because he is important for the team not only on the pitch but also off it.”

Against Plzeň, the defence in particular did not work, while it seemed to have gone up in many ways under Vrba. But in big games he makes unnecessary mistakes, which quality teams can take advantage of.

“So far we have been much better offensively and now we have come up against a team that made us say: gentlemen, we have to go back to some things we have not been paying so much attention to. We have to learn from our defensive mistakes. If we play like that in the next games, the opponents will punish us,” Vrba concluded.

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