Slovan is facing a very demanding spring, which was confirmed by Sunday’s match at the DAC field. After him, the people of Bratislava lead the league table ahead of Dunajská Streda by three points, Trnava loses five of them to the leader.
In addition to the fight for the championship title, the team of Vladimir Weiss st. to prepare for the quarter-finals of the Slovak Cup and in March for the long-awaited round of 16 of the European Conference League.
The EKL draw will take place on February 24. The first match will be played by Slovan at the opponent’s field on March 9, the rematch at Tehelny Poli in a week. The club’s media manager Tomáš Schügerl has already announced that the last thousands of tickets remain on sale.
Extremely attractive opponents can come to Bratislava – for example, Lazio, Fiorentina, Partizan Belgrade or Trabzonspor with Marek Hamšík.
Slovan, however, had to cope with numerous departures during the winter, and the departure of stopper Myenta Abena will be particularly noticeable for him, which was confirmed by the match in Dunajská stred and the coach’s critical words after the match.
More than 9,000 spectators saw a tense, high-tempo duel in the MOL Arena, with Slovan already losing in the 7th minute after a goal by Cesar Blackman.
However, in the first half, Dunajská Streda lost the injured striker Nikola Krstović and the expelled stopper Spyros Risvanis, who stopped the running Malik Abubakari and received a red card.
We have to play better
After the change of sides, the home team mostly defended in a compact and deep block; the equalizer came only in the 68th minute, when Juraj Kucka ran onto Giorgi Čakvetadze’s excellent cross. His header was still blocked by goalkeeper Samuel Petráš, but it was not enough to hit the target.
“An amazing pass and an unexpected scorer. Perhaps we expect that it will be Vlado Weiss Jr. or Čavrić, but here Čakvetadze showed fantastic insight,” football analyst Martin Mikulič evaluated the equalizing goal on TV Dajto.
Weiss st. however, he was not too happy with the result or his team’s performance. “An excellent match full of emotions, but today we didn’t play the way we know how. We should have used the power play more. The draw is deserved, but we can play better and we have to play better. […] It was important not to lose in Dunajská stred and we will continue,” said coach Weiss after the match.
“We have to evaluate it soberly, because we were also full of emotions. Our key players didn’t play that well, that’s why our game wasn’t that good,” he added.
What will the Africans bring?
Dunajská Streda lost in the last three league matches against Slovan and the situation remains balanced at the top of the table after the 19th round, which certainly does not please Slovan’s coach ahead of the busy match schedule.
That is also why he publicly asked for new reinforcements during the winter. “We have to bring in fresh blood because we have quite an old team. Two or three younger players who will learn from Kuck, Kankava, Kašia, Vlad (Weiss the younger – editor’s note),” he said.
In January, however, there was talk of departures for a long time, with several players from the starting line-up also leaving Slovan. At first glance, it therefore seems that the team is weaker than in the fall. It will probably be the biggest loss
