Sigma Olomouc go through and Slavia Prague go home, 2‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Slavia Prague scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Petr Potměšil did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Tomáš Holeš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Tomáš Holeš and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Domzale runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
3‑0 against Astra, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Slavia Prague have 10 straight wins of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ivan Schranz takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Schranz provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.94, and 2 involvements.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.68, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lukáš Provod. 3‑1 against Slovacko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Viktoria Plzen next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mojmír Chytil at his very best
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Tomáš Holeš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Slavia Prague and Mlada Boleslav, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Tomáš Holeš and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lukáš Provod. 3‑1 against Teplice, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michal Sadílek and Slavia Prague agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Slavia Prague. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
3‑0 against KR, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Jablonec will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Petr Potměšil, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Danijel Šturm was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Tomáš Holeš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
0‑3 against PSV. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Tomáš Holeš and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 6.73 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Slavia Prague dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Slavia Prague pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Lukáš Provod takes the afternoon — 9.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Provod provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Sparta Prague on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
David Barčot was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadMaxim Magada falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for David Jurásek
Jihlava will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Slavia Prague were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Danijel Šturm takes the afternoon — 9.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danijel Šturm provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Slavia Prague asked and Sigma Olomouc said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Slavia Prague close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Petr Potměšil has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Slavia Prague offered $2.3M; Banik Ostrava said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banik Ostrava have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Tomáš Holeš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Moses has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.09 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Igoh Ogbu was one of the reasons people came, and $18.1M does not replace that by itself.
Slavia Prague asked and Astra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Krasnodar for Mojmír Chytil was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and Slavia Prague go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The phone has started ringing about Divine Teah again, and this time the name on the line is Cherno More. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ivan Schranz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The offer from CSKA Moscow for Lukáš Provod was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Tomáš Holeš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals in one match, Mojmír Chytil on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Slavia Prague and Sigma Olomouc.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Jankto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Slavia Prague are still learning each other
2 behind and going nowhere, until Tomáš Chorý decided otherwise. Slovan Liberec had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
The bid was some way short and Slavia Prague did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Tomáš Chorý takes the afternoon — 9.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomáš Chorý provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Miloš Kratochvíl has just signed for Slavia Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Slavia Prague hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 4‑2, and it was Tomáš Chorý’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Slavia Prague.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Mojmír Chytil was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.