Sparta Eyes Revenge Against Lyon After Mladá Boleslav Setback

Prague's Sparta is going through a rough patch: after a poor league performance, the team is now preparing for the return leg of its Champions League tie with France's Lyon, travelling with a 2:1 advantage after winning the first leg at home. The disappointment from Saturday's match is still hanging over the dressing room.

Sparta's Norwegian forward Jens Petter Hauge Brunes, who only came on in the second half on Saturday, admitted the first half had been painful to watch from the bench. "It was unacceptable — Sparta can't play like that, we need to work on everything," he said, adding that he was also frustrated with himself for hitting the post instead of scoring.

What the coach said

Sparta's Danish manager Brian Priske acknowledged that the mood in the dressing room after the loss was tense. "As a team and as individual players, we simply cannot play like that. The atmosphere was what you'd expect after a defeat — there were negative emotions, but the players are open to criticism and ready to fix things," he said. According to him, by Monday's training session everyone was fully focused on the upcoming match against Lyon. "We need to put the emotions and disappointment aside for a moment so we can perform at the top level tomorrow," the coach stressed.

Criticism from an expert

Monday's Tyůkes show on Sport.cz dissected the Mladá Boleslav game with pundit Jakub Diviš, who sharply criticised the coach's decision to make seven changes at once to the starting lineup compared to the first leg against Lyon. "I understand wanting to save energy before the return leg, but why send out a lineup like that, especially after a bad away trip to Brno? As far as I can tell, these guys had never played together like that before. If it had been two changes, that would be understandable," the expert said. He also described the team's pressing in that match as "pseudo-pressing" and demanded that Sparta bring back the fighting spirit shown against Lyon: "I want to see them the way they were against Lyon — fired up, full of emotion and hunger."

As a reminder, Sparta beat Lyon at home, turning the match around after a rocky start, and now carry a 2:1 lead into the trip to France. "We need to turn the disappointment from the weekend into something useful," Brunes summed up.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz