Viktoria Plzen vs Slavia Prague prediction
Viktoria Plzen
A busy schedule of matches awaits Victoria Pilsen in the coming days. After a spectacular victory in the Europa League over Hungarian Ferencvaros (3:0) and passage to the 1/8 finals, Miroslav Koubek's team will have a difficult match against the leader of the Czech championship. In the match against the Hungarians, the Plzen team gave their best - they actively pressed, created chances and scored three unanswered goals in the first half. So it turns out that the hosts have only a few days to recover from such an intense game. Interestingly, Thursday's main character Rafiu Durosinmi has managed to fully recover from injury and has already scored a double in the recent 2-0 victory over Teplice. However, the hosts have serious personnel problems for the home match with Slavia. Vaclav Jemelka, the main central defender (21 matches in the season), who has received yellow cards, will definitely not be able to participate in the game against the Czech Republic. In addition, the participation of forward Prince Kwabena Adu (12 matches, 5 goals) in the game is questionable - the striker has muscle problems after the last match.
Slavia Prague
But Slavia is approaching the match in a better position. Indrzych Trpisowski has almost a full clip of football players at his disposal. The hung ones have been systematically preparing for the duel with the Victorians all week and will definitely not experience any problems with freshness. This season, the Prague club looks like a real machine - 19 wins in 22 matches with a goal difference of 45:7. Slavia has conceded only once away this season, scoring an average of almost two goals per game. The Red and white team's defense is also impressive, with only 4 goals conceded in 11 away matches. And this is despite the fact that during the season the team had to endure the loss of the main goalkeeper Antonin Kinski, who left for Tottenham for 16.5 million euros. However, Jindrzyh Stanek, who replaced him, is doing an excellent job as number one - he has already scored three crackers in three spring matches.: 1-0 with Banik, 2-0 with Pardubice and 1-0 with Mlada Boleslav. It is curious that the last two matches with Victoria in the championship were won by Seshiwany with the same score 3:0.
Prediction
Slavia looks to be the favorite in this matchup. The Prague club is not just leading in the championship, but has a solid 10-point lead over the second place, has the best defense (only 7 missed) and attack (45 scored) of the championship. In addition, statistics tell us that in 13 of the last 20 away matches, the hungarians invariably took away three points. And then there's the Victorians' fatigue factor after a tough match in the Europa League, where the players left a lot of strength. And the personnel losses of the hosts cannot be discounted - without the disqualified Yemelka, Victoria's defense will definitely not become stronger. But it is the reliability of defensive formations that is the key factor in matches against Slavia, which knows how to punish for the slightest mistake. Another interesting statistic speaks in favor of the guests - in 13 of the last 20 face-to-face matches, the Victorians invariably lost to a more famous opponent. At the same time, Prague is superbly equipped with attacking players - in addition to the main scorers Tomas Hori and Moyimir Khitil (8 goals each), there are such completion masters as Vasil Kusey and Giannis-Fivos Botos on the bench. All this, combined with the best away league statistics, suggests that Slavia will win this match.
