The football holiday has finally arrived to Pilsen. The day when Viktorka played against Manchester United in the next round of the Europa League. Unfortunately, we lost the match 1:2. Matěj Vydra scored for the home team.

Before the start of the match, a special light and fire show was held to underline the importance of the duel. Everything was accompanied by a fantastic choreo from the fans. The sold-out Doosan Arena drove the Red and Blue to victory right from the start. Manchester United were clearly considered by many experts to be the paper favourites. It is no surprise that the first action came from the English side. Joshua Zirkzee wriggled his way into the big whitewash, but the whole situation was brilliantly read by Cheick Souaré. He prevented any dangerous shot. Viktoria played several standard situations in the first fifteen minutes directly on goal and goalkeeper André Onana´s saves threatened his clean sheet so far.

Manchester United had more possession of the ball but were unable to create any major scoring opportunities. This was due to good attacking by the Victorians, who did not give their opponents time to come up with anything. During the game there were many personal fights, which the main referee often assessed as illegal defending. In the 31st minute, Bruno Fernandes took a shot at the level of the whitewash. However, his attempt was well dealt with by Martin Jedlička. Viktoria concentrated on solid defence with quick transitions to counter-attack. Before the end of the first half, Cheick Souaré sent in a curling shot. Unfortunately for us, his shot didn´t find the net. Matěj Vydra also fired a shot moments later, but with the same result. The fans didn´t see the goal, so the players went to the booths in a tie.

At the start of the second half, the entire Doosan Arena nearly collapsed. André Onana made a gross error. His poor cross was intercepted by Pavel Šulc, who read the English goalkeeper´s intention. He then fed the ball to Matěj Vydra in the open net and the celebrations were underway. The Victorians, encouraged by the goal, threatened more and more often. Daniel Vasulin was the next to increase the lead. To handle the ball, turn quickly and finish. Almost perfectly executed, but the scoreboard didn´t change. In the 63rd minute, Manchester managed to draw level at 1-1. The substitute Rasmus Hojlund got the ball into the empty net.

A difficult task awaited the Pilsen defence today. Eliminate all threats from the English stars. One of the important saves was made by Svetozar Markovic. The Plzeň defender dived under the feet of Mason Mount and prevented a dangerous action. Matěj Vydra had a great chance, but just missed the goal inside the sixteen. In the 77th minute, Martin Jedlička shone again, making it clear that he was not going to let the ball go behind his back. The last ten minutes of the game saw one action after another. An unpleasant moment came in the 88th minute. Manchester United managed to increase the score to 2-1 after a standard situation. The head referee called five minutes to go. During this time, unfortunately, we failed to equalize, and so FC Viktoria Plzen lost to Manchester United 1:2.