Dukla Blow Winning Lead Against Slavia's Reserve Side in Czech Second Division

Dukla Prague let a victory slip through their fingers on Friday evening at their Juliska stadium, failing to hold on against Slavia's reserve squad — a team with an average age under 20. The Prague side led for more than an hour but collapsed late on, losing all three points and handing top spot in the still-incomplete second-division table to the young Slavia B side.

Dukla opened the scoring early and held their advantage for a long stretch of the match, but a set-piece goal from the visitors turned the game on its head. Head coach Rostislav Šustr, however, was reluctant to call it a collapse.

What went wrong

"The team worked hard, defended well, and you could see the desire to see the match out for a win. But after that set-piece goal, something broke. We made a few substitutions, started playing better with the ball, but paradoxically our defending got worse," the coach said after the game.

He noted that the team had had some decent chances — striker Raimund Mikuš, for instance, found himself in promising positions — but Dukla failed to finish their attacks. "Today we were pulling the short straw and couldn't cope," the coach admitted.

Asked whether a team with promotion ambitions should be dropping points like this at home, Šustr insisted the club makes no distinction between home and away fixtures: "We don't want to hide behind the fact that we were playing at home. We're not shy about saying we want to fight for first place and a spot in the top flight. We simply can't afford to lose matches like this."

Breaking down the decisive moment

Discussing the turning point of the match, the coach stressed that details matter: "You don't have to play beautifully if you're defending a 1-0 lead well." He suggested that goalkeeper Ondřej Lyling needs to pay closer attention to his positioning during the opponent's set pieces, though he was careful not to put all the blame on his keeper alone, noting that the club's back line is experienced enough to protect a lead.

The coach also drew a comparison with the spring part of last season, when Dukla were fighting to stay in the top division and every point felt priceless. Getting used to the idea that points now need to be earned regularly a level down is no easy task, he said — one the team is working on deliberately. Winning consistently and dealing with every opponent, home and away, is far harder than producing one good performance in the top flight.

Leadership and the character of the league

Šustr, who became a prominent figure at the club and in the media this spring, insisted the team, not the coach, should be the face of Dukla: "I'd rather people said we play good football and win. I'm not trying to put myself in the spotlight or put on a show."

Assessing the level of the second division after four rounds, the coach described the competition as fairly even and pushed back against the idea that Dukla are automatic favourites simply because they were relegated from the top flight. In his view, the league is more balanced than last season, when Zbrojovka Brno stood out as the clear underdog — yet even that weak side never got thrashed easily, thanks to solid defending. It's exactly that kind of reliable defence that Šustr wants to build his own team's game around.

Read also: Brno: what to see and where to go

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz