2024-03-14 08:18:17
Slavia’s football coach Jindřich Trpišovský would prefer to avoid a penalty shootout in the round of 16 rematch with AC Milan. He made the announcement at the pre-match press conference at the Eden Stadium.
Prague lost 2:4 at San Siro a week ago, the coach of the Czech vice-champions called Thursday’s ideal scenario to erase the two-goal deficit and progress after extra time. Slavia has problems in the midfield before the important duel, the injured Lukáš Masopust will almost certainly not start and the start of Ivan Schranz is also in danger.
“Of course we want to advance, but above all we would like to show the best possible football, mental and physical performance. We want to be responsible defensively and dangerous going forward. Then we will see what it will be enough for,” said Trpišovský.
Slavia in Milan played from the 26th minute without the suspended full-back El Hadji Malick Diouf, who will miss the rematch due to the penalty. The guests showed a sympathetic performance in a weakened state and thanks to the goals of David Douděra and Ivan Schranz they kept the score at 2:3 for a long time, but thanks to the intervention of Christian Pulisic in the 85th minute, the favorite finally created a two-goal lead.
“We want to build on what we started in Milan, even though we know what kind of opponent we are playing against. I saw their match against Rennes yesterday. AC players are capable of performing incredible things even under pressure,” praised Trpišovský, whose team will be able to rely on the support of a sold-out Eden.
“The fans will come to see a big match against a world team, it will be a full house, everyone is excited. Liverpool played in Prague last week against Sparta, now AC Milan is here. You can see Rafael Lea, Olivier Giroud, Simon Kjaer and other stars . It will be a football holiday with everything, no matter how it turns out,” said the forty-eight-year-old coach.
The people of Prague believe that they can at least repeat the 2-0 home victory from the group over another Italian team, AS Rome, and go through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League for the third time after 2019 and 2021. Any win by Slavia by two goals on Thursday would mean extra time and possibly a penalty shootout. But Trpišovský would rather avoid that.
“As a fan I always looked forward to penalties at the European and World Cups. During extra time I wished it would go to a shootout. But as a coach I hate them, I don’t want to experience it. It’s the last thing you want to decide the promotion “, he pointed out. “I would like extra time because it would mean our win and erasing the two-goal deficit. In addition, people would have an extra portion of minutes. If I were to dream up a scenario, we would get the match into extra time and decide it,” added Trpišovský.
The Slavist coach is troubled by the absence in the midfield. Defensive all-rounder Lukáš Masopust will almost certainly not recover, and Schranz, who scored five goals in eight cup matches this season, also has health problems. The return of midfielders Christos Zafeiris and Petr Ševčík is in the game.
“Lukáš’s start is rather improbable, 80 to 90 percent of the time he will be absent. There is also a question mark for Schranz, who completed the match in Milan with self-denial. Otherwise, the line-up will be very similar to the one on Sunday against Teplice,” the Slavia coach reminded of Sunday’s 4-0 league win.
“We are reviving Zafeiris, we are reviving Ševčík, at least for part of the match. There is some chance. Tomáš Holeš is also an option in the midfield, we discussed it yesterday. It will depend on the development of the match and how Petr Ševčík will look after today’s training. Zafeiris he is not in a condition to start,” Trpišovský said.