Defeat in Lyon
Spartans travelled to Lyon in the fourth round of the group stage of Europa League. They played against this French team two weeks ago in Prague, where Sparta was early winning 2-0, but Olympique turned around a match and won 4-3. Today’s match had a different scenario. The first half brought only one huge chance when Slimani went alone to Nita, but he missed the target. It did not happen to him in a similar opportunity in the second half and this time scored. Slimani also added the second goal for his team two minutes later. On the other side, LK37 and Karabec missed their chances. Ekambi added the third goal at the end of the match.
Sparta’s coach Pavel Vrba made only one change in comparison to the first game in Letná. LK37 replaced Hložek in the starting line-up. Hložek did not finish yesterday’s training due to some health problems. Besides that, Vrba could not count due to different reasons with Štetina, DMK, Højer, Juliš, Polidar, and Souček. The great news was that Ladislav Krejčí was ready on the bench after a pulmonary embolism. On the other side, Peter Bosz made five changes in his starting eleven and left players like Emerson, Ekambi, Paquetá, Dubois, or Boateng only on the bench.
Sparta’s defender Ondřej Čelůstka got injured at the beginning of the game and had to substitute already in the 7th minute. He was replaced by Vindheim.
There was a mistake from one of Spartans a few seconds later and Shaqiri had a first chance in the match. However, his shot went above the target from a good position.
The first opportunity from Sparta came in the 19th minute after the free-kick when a header from LK37 did not cause a lot of trouble for Lopes.
Haraslín sent a dangerous attempt three minutes later, but it went tightly above the target.
Lopes had to box after Pešek’s tough shot in the 27th minute. Lyon had luck while the ball almost went to Minčev in front of the empty goal.
Slimani went alone to Nita from about 30 metres two minutes later, and he ruined the biggest chance in this game until this moment.
We did not see any other opportunity during the rest of the first half.
The first interesting moment in the second half came in the 56th minute when Aouar had a dangerous header close to Nita. Sparta’s goalkeeper needed two tries to clear the dangerous area while he reacted fast to another shot a moment later.
Slimani got a great ball behind a defensive line and went alone to Nita. He went through him and scored a goal to the empty net, 1-0.
Caqueret sent a long pass directly to Slimani’s head who did not give any chance to Nita two minutes later and scored, 2-0.
Sparta wanted to come back as soon as possible. LK37 had a great opportunity but he missed a target from about three metres in front of it. It has been the biggest chance for Sparta in this match so far.
Karabec was heading to Lopes from the side while he could pass in the last moment, but he chose a different solution after which had a Portuguese goalkeeper tackle a ball to the corner kick.
LK37 had another good opportunity in the 85th minute when he got a great ball to his head. However, the home goalkeeper did not allow him to score and tackled it to another corner.
Olympique could add the third goal two minutes later when Paquetá found Guimarães in the penalty area. Nita went out of the target and made a great save.
The same player had another good opportunity two minutes later while he could pass to his teammates in better positions, but he did not, and Nita saved again.
Sparta did not give up and wanted to score. Dočkal’s long pass went to Karabec’s head, but he missed a goal.
Barcola performed a nice individual action and sent a direct pass to Ekambi’s head. He did not miss a clear chance and scored the third goal for his team. It was the last dangerous moment in this match. Lyon won 3-0.