Competition within the competition, two championships and different histories will meet this autumn in the continental tournament. A reason to celebrate for the Czechs in love with the Belpaese and especially for the Italians who emigrated to Czech Republic
The Monte Carlo draw has determined that this year, in the Europa League, the three Czech teams competing will face Inter, Roma and Fiorentina in the long path of the group stage. An unprecedented triple clash between the two countries which seems more likely to make the Italians smile than Sparta Prague, Slovan Liberec and Viktoria Plzeň. The latter teams will therefore have the opportunity to measure themselves against one of the best leagues in Europe, and will be able to evaluate the real level of competitiveness of Czech football internationally.
The Europa League, the second continental competition in terms of prestige (and especially revenue) behind the Champions League, has taken on a different meanings for the two football associations in recent years. In fact, the Italian formations tend to snub the occasion, fielding reserves or youngsters in their debuts, on several occasions tripping up in negative results against seemingly inferior opponents on paper, in front of several thousand fans. A completely different matter with regard to Czech teams, who consider the tournament, and with good reason, an international showcase. The path of Sparta Prague last season, to the quarter-finals, shows how important it is in the country, with the best eleven in the formations entering the pitches from the earliest qualifying rounds, and who constantly manage to fill stadiums. The triple challenge with Italy is certainly an even greater incentive for Czech football, ready to redeem itself after a negative European Championship. Many players such as Krejčí, Schick and Brabec have arrived in major leagues, another sign, hopefully, of a phase of growth and development.
The competition between the two countries will start on September the 15th, when Viktoria Plzeň’s ‘Doosan Arena’ will host the A.S Roma of Luciano Spalletti, and Edin Džeko, an old acquaintance of Czech football. It was in 1.Liga in the colours of FK Teplice where the Bosnian striker of the Giallorossi exploded, before being courted by Felix Magath and moving to Wolfsburg, and later (in a deal of millions of euros) to the ranks of Manchester City and Roma. While there is a Roma player who came over from the Czech Republic, there is also one in Viktoria Plzeň who has already experienced Italian football. We are talking of the left-back David Limberský, who was signed by Genoa in 2003, but his Italian adventure, which included a transfer to Modena the following year, was a failure. Limberský therefore decided to return home again reaching an agreement with Viktoria Plzeň, the team that launched him in professional football.
On 15 September, the ‘Doosan Arena’ will not have an atmosphere worthy of big events: UEFA has decided to close some stands as punishment for the racist behavior of some supporters during the match against the Bulgarian team Ludogorets. Between Viktoria Plzeň and Roma there have been no previous encounters, only a friendly match in 2009, which finished 1-1.
“I didn’t come here only to play, but to win”. The promise of Tomáš Rosický, who after 15 years returns in the maroon colours of Sparta Prague, the team he arrived in at the age of just eight. “Little Mozart” came back home after a long rewarding career with Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal. An opponent more for the Inter of Frank De Boer, who will have to contain the creativity of the 36-year-old if he wants to defeat the formation of coach Zdeněk Ščasný. Rosický’s goal is to bring Sparta Prague back to the peak of Czech football, by winning the 1.Liga, and to play in the Champions League. His performance, therefore, could be a “swan song” of a great career in which he has managed to win two Czech championships, a Bundesliga title in Germany, two FA Cups and a Charity Shield in England, as well as being nominated three times as Czech footballer of the year. His charisma and international experience will be a very important weapon for the ‘maroons’, with Ščasný who at the same time, will have to be good at managing his “glass physique” which has always been the weak point of the attacking midfielder.
Inter and Sparta Prague: a clash already seen and reseen in the past. There have been, in fact, eight previous encounters between the two teams, with three wins each and two draws. The last match-up, however, took place on October the 1st, 1969, when the second leg of the first round of the Fairs Cup was played in the Czech capital. After a 3-0 win in the first game, it was a goal of Boninsegna that decided the meeting, with Inter getting through to the next round. 47 years later the two teams face off once again, a great joy for the Inter Club in the Czech Republic, called “Cechia Nerazzurra”, who will support the colours of the Milanese club in their own country for the first time. The group, formed in 2003 and based in Kutná Hora, has more than 100 members between Czechs, Slovaks and Italians, and about sixty of these will be in Prague on September 29, at the “Generali Arena”. An event for which the “Cechia Nerazzurra” club was waiting for 13 years, as the historical president Massimo Recchioni remembers.
The same goes for the Viola club. There are even two of them. One, is in Prague, chaired by Matteo Scardicci, whose members will surely all be in the stadium. Then there is another club, founded in 2009, which belongs to the site “Fiorentina.cz”, which among its ten members includes also Tomáš Ujfaluši, former Czech defender who wore the purple colour of Fiorentina between 2004 and 2008 getting 149 appearances and 2 goals. Ujfaluši is one of five Czechs who played in the Tuscan club, along with Kubík, Řepka, Hable and Mazuch. The peculiarity of the Czech colony in the purple kits is the fact that the vast majority of the previously mentioned players were central defenders, except for Jan Hable, a central midfielder. The small ‘Viola Club’ will not be able to miss the double-header against Slovan Liberec, who in their history have never met Fiorentina.
As anticipated, on September 15, the match between Viktoria Plzeň and Roma is scheduled, and two weeks later Inter will host Sparta Prague. The encounters in the Czech Republic will conclude on October 20 with the match between Slovan Liberec and Fiorentina, a challenge that will be replayed in Florence two weeks later, on November 3. The schedule of this particular “competition within the competition”, ends with Roma-Viktoria on November 24 and Inter-Sparta on 8 December. In any case, it will be reason for celebration for Czech lovers of the Belpaese and especially for the many Italian immigrants in the Czech Republic, but with the heart always in the Peninsula.
by Alessandro De Felice
