Plzeň beat Jablonec 3-2 after leading 3-0 in a wild league finish

Plzeň won 3-2 away at Jablonec, although they led 3-0 in the 53rd minute and saw their advantage cut to a single goal by the 84th. The hero of the match was named as goalkeeper Florian Wiegele, who returned to the net after the international break.

The goalkeeper saved Plzeň

In the second half, especially towards the end, Wiegele had more and more to do. “He deserves the most credit for us holding on today,” coach Radoslav Kováč said of his goalkeeper. He described the end of the match like this: “Horror. A catastrophe. We were asking for it. We made substitutions, but I don’t want to criticise the players. We went out with a plan, but instead we started running around chaotically and lost our structure. We pressed one by one, and Jablonec took advantage. We gave away four or five set pieces with senseless fouls.”

Both of the home side’s goals came from set pieces, and Filip Zorvan was involved in both. First Dušan Pavlovič scored after his delivery, then Baboucarr Faal put the ball into his own net from Zorvan’s cross. Jablonec came close to a sensational equaliser as well.

What the players say

Zorvan admitted he was surprised at how often his team won the aerial balls, leading to shots or follow-ups, and that he expected Plzeň to clear more: “The more crosses came in, the more chaos there was. The goalkeeper bailed them out.”

The home side were revived by a triple substitution twenty minutes from time, when Dominik Hollý, Jan Chramosta and Nelson Okeke came on. Kováč admitted: “I was afraid for the result. We started hoofing balls forward, and when you kick them to Teki (Tekijaški), they come back. But in the end we held on, and I’m glad about the three points. We need to work on the last thirty minutes.”

By the numbers, Jablonec outplayed their opponents: 23-11 in shots, 9-3 in shots on target and 3.08-1.05 in expected goals. Amar Memič, who scored the third and ultimately winning goal, agreed: “The end was hard, but we made it hard ourselves. We were three goals up and then conceded two cheap goals. In the second half the energy disappeared and we stopped playing. We need to be calmer on the ball.” The match brought together teams playing in the Europa League and the Conference League.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz