Sparta Fall to Lyon and Crash Out of Conference League Playoffs After Red Card

Sparta Prague have been eliminated from the European playoffs, losing to France's Olympique Lyonnais in the second leg. The Czech side had travelled to France with a one-goal cushion after winning the first leg 2:1 at home, but couldn't hold on to it away from home.

Lyon levelled the aggregate score as early as the 20th minute following a mistake by goalkeeper Jakub Surovčík. The match was effectively decided in the 34th minute, when defender Adam Ševinský was shown a red card, leaving Sparta a man down for the better part of the game. Playing against one of Europe's strongest clubs in that position proved impossible to survive — the hosts added two more goals in the second half.

Players react after the match

"We conceded an unfortunate first goal, and then Adam's unfortunate sending-off happened. We managed to withstand Lyon's early pressure, but then those unlucky moments kept coming... Playing a man down against one of the best teams in Europe was incredibly difficult," said coach Sørensen.

"Playing with ten men at a stadium like that, against a team like Olympique, was tough. We simply couldn't keep up," added midfielder Adam Karabec. The match held special meaning for him, as he spent last season on loan at Lyon. He had a chance to make his mark in the first half, heading the ball from inside the six-yard box, but it flew just over the crossbar.

"This was a special match for me. We knew the second leg would be tougher than the first game in Prague. We told ourselves we needed to avoid conceding for as long as possible. But we let one in fairly early, and soon after that we were down to ten men. That knocked us off balance a bit. Still, we believed we'd create chances — and we did, but we just couldn't convert them," Karabec summed up ruefully.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz