Ajax or derby? Slavia saved the best for the match in which they won more

Success in the big “S” derby is often the key to the season. Slavia is now holding him in his hand and is not going to let him go. After three seasons without a title, she is endlessly hungry for him, partially sacrificing the duel with Ajax for him. She calculated well what would be worth it.

Sometimes the teams of the big three, i.e. Sparta, Slavia and Plzeň, lose some points even in matches with the remaining league competition. But it happens rarely and to a relatively comparable extent. This state of affairs therefore increases the importance of mutual duels between teams from the Czech Top 3.

The one who doesn’t win a lot in them doesn’t enjoy the trophy, one would say in the Erben language. Slavia is living proof of this truth. In the past season, it collected tied results against Sparta, with defeats against Pilsen.

But there is a new season, new players, an (old) new way of playing. And compared to the really recent past, there is a visible new physical strength in the Slavic performance and with it also better results so far.

As a result, Slavia also has a more promising chance to finally go through the middle again in the season finale, to pump the championship trophy above their heads – and to think about what to spend the jackpot, i.e. an imaginary golden brick for the certainty of a direct start in the Champions League for the next competition year.

Don’t say hop until you’ve jumped, our grandmothers would advise celebrants. The season has only completed ten rounds out of 35, if we include the superstructure as well.

What is certain, however, is that Slavia has already managed to beat both Viktoria and now Sparta in the derby. Checkmate arrived more or less after 65 seconds of play. The visible intense concentration of the fans on all moments in the game, literally from the first second to the last, celebrated a well-deserved success at that moment.

One would say: Well, God, that’s it. One scored goal doesn’t have to mean anything. There is plenty of time to solve.

However, if you are as perplexed by the unexpected goal from Slavia at the very beginning of the derby as Sparta’s players were shocked on Sunday, then your opponent can half congratulate himself. Because the surprised Sparta was practically until the end of the half… more or less useless.

Coach Lars Friis stirred up his red horses at least until the second half, when they were already competitive against Slavia. But again, not enough to do anything better with the result than a correction from 0:2 to 1:2

Slavia looks impressive at these stages of the season. It usually pours into the opponent’s defense unstoppably, massively and destructively like a tsunami wave.

The celebrants present their huge reservoir of powers, with which they would probably annoy even the devil. The center of the Slavic power and the current megaform is Lukáš Provod, who finds the right solutions and exudes self-confidence and authority. He must be a very positive role model for his colleagues in Slavia.

However, Slavia’s coaches know that football is also a bit of mathematics. Not only are the points added to the table, but sometimes also fatigue, although it seems that Slavia does not know the word.

However, several key players deliberately entered Thursday’s Europa League match against Ajax during the match. Chorý, Jurásek, Provod and Diouf played the last half hour of the duel with Ajax, Zafeiris the last quarter of an hour.

Perhaps this strategy could have cost Slavia its win over Ajax, even if a draw is not to be thrown away. But the derby was simply higher for Slavia now. If the season is not affected by unexpected new eruptions in the Sun, wins over Sparta and Slavia should open the door to the championship trophy. And that really straight to the Champions League.

So, if Slavia asked the magic mirror which match is more important to her, she probably heard quite clearly: Derby after all!

In the podcast, water carriers also discussed the derby after Ještěd, which led to the great disappointment of the owner of the Liberec club Ondřej Kania. Many other topics were also discussed. As always.