We did everything, but we cannot reverse the result
„Our opponent did not lack quality. But we played very good first half, and until the penalty the hosts have had only one dangerous situation, from which they scored. The lads have played responsibly in the defence, have not allowed Midtjylland to get into the game for almost the entire match. Our opponent had possession, but they could not create any chances,” Jindřich Trpišovský said after the game.
“This is football, it is about key moments and I am sorry that we couldn’t add the second goal. The game was extremely exhausting, but despite it we made minimum mistakes. First half was good from all, we made some bad decisions in the second one. And we could not take care of one dangerous cross. We can discuss whatever we want, but we cannot reverse the result,” explains the boss.
“The penalty situation was our fault, of course, preceded by Traoré’s bad clearance. Ibra came on the pitch to help us, he managed to keep the ball a lot. But there is nothing worse than saved penalty six minutes to the end of the game which is repeated a minute later after our attack. We are five years together with some of the players and I have never seen them like this. Ibra knows about his mistake, he is extremely sorry. It was an unlucky moment,” Trpišovský added.
Before the repeated penalty there was a discussion between the Slavia staff and the referee. “I asked him whether he can go and check the situation himself, he replied that it is the decision of VAR. He told me he believes his colleague at VAR. We were preparing for the game for 14 days, it was extremely important for us, so I asked him. But he replied he was not going anywhere, that he had the VAR decision. The lads have been running 13 kilometres here and he could not go to check the video,” explained Jindřich Trpišovský.
Shortly after the situation, Jan Kuchta was pulled down inside the box on the other side. No penalty was given. “If the VAR dissected the penalty situation, I cannot understand why they could not deal wit holding of Kuchta on the other side. It was no big foul, but in the context of the previous situation, they could check it too,” Trpišovský said.
“I must thank the families of the players for all what they came through in the previous weeks. Now the frustration is huge. We subordinated everything to the cause and it’s harsh for us now,” the manager concluded.