Pavel Vrba’s team had expected a tough test in the second UCL qualifying round. Olympiacos are the current vice-champion and the most successful Greek team on a long term basis, however, they were not able to score at the Doosan Arena in the first leg match. Neither Viktorians netted their chances so they will continue in the second leg in Greece with a tie 0-0.

2nd QR 1st leg, Tue 23rd July 2019, 19:00, Doosan Arena

Plzeň: Hruška – Havel, Pernica, Brabec (72. Hejda), Hloušek – Hrošovský, Kalvach – Kayamba, Čermák (83. Mihálik), Kopic – Krmenčík (69. Chorý)

Olympiacos: José Sá – Elabdellaoui, Ruben Semedo, Papadopoulos (22. Ba), Tsimikas – Bouchalakis, Guilherme – Daniel Podence, Valbuena (56. Camara), Masouras (81. Ranđelović) – Guerrero

YC: Havel – Ruben Semedo, Referees: Guida – Carbone, Bindoni (all Italy).
Attendance: 10,632.

Careful start of the match caused a little more wrinkles on forehead of Olympiacos’ coach but not in terms of the game style. Pedro Martins had to deal with long-term injury of his key player Kostas Fortounise and in the 22nd minute he also had to replace substituting skipper – centre back Papadopulos.

Viktorians produced several attacks into changed defence and started to be more self-confident, mainly Kopic made the opponent often busier. He prepared a great chance for Čermák in the 32nd minute. He bet on vigour by his left foot but José Sá performed excellent save towards him and secured the ball in front of the goal line. Kopic had an effort on goal at the end of first half but the action was not successful and was stopped by an upright.

Joel Kayamba was close to opening the score after the break when receiving a crossed ball from the left side. He attempted to volley into empty net but he missed the target. Aleš Hruška was also busy but neither the visitors could succeed in their offensive effort. At the end Ondřej Mihálik experienced his home premiere but he also did not open the score.

Exhausting hot weather condition finally ended to a goalless tie, which left the decision of advancing team to Greek second leg.

Pavel Vrba’s Commentary

“To play a 0-0 tie isn‘t very positive because the second leg in Greece will be very difficult. But if we shoot a goal our hope rises. Today it showed if we defend responsibly, even offensively extraordinary opponent has little chances. On the contrary, we created some good positions but unfortunately we didn’t turn them into goals,“ he evaluated the match.