3-0 win against Pardubice for the Red-whites!

Slavia played the 19th round of the FORTUNA:LIGA against FK Pardubice. Manager Jindřich Trpišovský made only two changes to his starting line-up in comparison with the last match against Příbram. Oscar Dorley replaced Jan Bořil on left-back and Simon Deli started insted of David Zima in defence. Alexander Bah and Ondřej Kúdela played in defense, Tomáš Holeš and Lukáš Provod started as defensive midfielders. The attacking midfield trio was composed of Sima, Stanciu and Olayinka. Jan Kuchta played up front.

Slavia started the game playing very offensively putting pressure on Pardubice defence. The Red-whites had some good opportunities in the first minutes of the game, but one of the biggest came in the 15th minute. Lukáš Provod crossed the ball from a free kick on the left wing right into the middle of the penalty area to Simon Deli who headed it powerfully on goal, but Bocháč made a great save and catched the ball.

In the 19th minute Abdallah Sima dribbled trough the left wing and passed the ball to the edge of the penalty area to Lukáš Provod. He had trouble controlling the ball and lost it but it was recovered quickly by Alexander Bah. He shot at goal and Boháč made a great save but the ball rebounded to Jan Kuchta who was alone in front of goal and scored into the open net to make it 1-0!

Tomáš Holeš made a great tackle in the middle of the field in the 27th minute to win the ball. The ball rebounded to Lukáš Provod who started running towards the opposition’s goal, ran past the defence and passed the ball to Kuchta right on the edge of the box. Boháč was on the other side of the goal, Kuchta shot quickly and did not give the goalkeeper a chance to save his shot! 2-0.

The Red-whites continued in their style of football in the second half as well and they were rewarded for it in the 52nd minute. Oscar ran with the ball on the left side of the pitch, passed it to Olayinka on the edge of the penalty area, Olayinka lost the ball but recovered it again very quickly, passed it to Provod who just tapped it to Nico Stanciu a few metres in front of the box. Stanciu shot beautifuly to the near post and Boháč could not reach the ball! 3-0.

In the last 30 minutes, Slavia continued in their attacking style and they had some good chances to score. Nicolae Stanciu probably had the biggest one in the 78th minute. He was running towards goal alone but instead of shooting, he wanted to pass the ball to Olayinka who was running behind him. But Toml was able to come back and clear the ball right in front of Olayinka to deny him a clear goalscoring opportunity!

Even though Slavia dominated the whole match, Pardubice had a few opportunities as well. After the Red-whites lost the ball in front of their penalty area in the 82th minute, Cadu fired on goal but Ondřej Kolář made a very good save to keep a clean sheet!

Slavia won the match 3-0 after Kuchta scored twice and Stanciu once. The Red-whites will play the next match on 17th February against Leicester City in the Europa League round of 32.