Sparta football captain Bořek Dočkal expects his team to have to fight the battle in Wednesday’s MOL Cup home cup final on the Liberec field.
Dočkal wants victory in the cup not only so that Letenští will end the six-year fast without winning any trophy, but also because they will secure a start in the 3rd preliminary round of the European League. The third place in the league, where the people of Prague are currently in place, guarantees a start a preliminary round earlier.
The European Cup qualifiers will only be played in one match instead of the traditional two in the summer due to the coronavirus pandemic and a busy schedule, with the exception of the Champions League playoffs.
“From this point of view, it would be nice to win the cup and be one round further. Playing one match is pretty unpredictable. For one match, it’s always a bit of an advantage for the weaker pair. We can never know who we’re If we can skip one round by winning the cup, then of course it is the only advantage for us, “Dočkal told an online press conference.
He sees triumph in the cup and his return to Europe almost as importantly. “The trophy that Sparta has been waiting for a long time is of course the biggest motivation, but the motivation to get to the European Cups and return them here to Sparta, to experience matches before the sold-out Letná and to play good matches on the European scene is almost on the same level. “This is an intermediate step that we need to take,” said the 31-year-old midfielder.
Sparta’s matches in Liberec tend to be tense. “We probably won’t avoid having to go through the battle, no one has a problem with that. When we go to Liberec, it is automatically taken into account. Firstly, it’s the environment, then how the team perceives Sparta, how it prepares for it and what a passion he is in the match, “stated the former player of Slavia, Kladno, Liberec, Trondheim or Philadelphia.
“Then there are a lot of other smaller things. The time we come to Liberec is also an important thing, because when it is played there in the autumn, you can’t play such football there. I believe that during this period the field will be ready and “I will be in such a state that we can combine and try to lose our opponents in football. I remember the matches in Liberec, when there were a lot of fights behind the edge. It’s about how the referee judges it,” said Dočkal.
The people of Prague won only one of the last nine competition duels on the Slovan field. “I have to say that it’s a bit of a specific match in Liberec. The last time I played there, which was at the beginning of last spring, we won. It’s not like we go there defeated in advance or in a state where we doubt ourselves, “Dočkal said.
In 2014, the Letna team won the league, the home cup and then the Super Cup, which included Dočkal. Since then, however, Sparta has not won a trophy, which Dočkal did not expect. “In 2014, I felt that the club was on its way to dominating and adding one trophy after another in the years to come. At that time, no one expected us to wait so long for the trophy. Suddenly one sees that this is the first opportunity since then to prove something like that at all, “said the captain of the Czech national team.
He tasted the final of the home cup for the first time in 2008, when he lost to Liberec in a penalty shootout Sparta. “It occurred to me then that there would be a lot of such matches, but then you suddenly approach the end of your career and see that it is not so easy in football and that every chance of a trophy needs to be used. You never know if that chance will be repeat again, “said Dočkal.
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