With Liberec against Viktoria Pilsen, two winners of the season opener for the Bohemian North-West derby compete against each other! The hosts landed a quite surprising away win at Banik Ostrau on Matchday 1, while the runner-up won his home match against Sigma Olomouc 3-1. For the Blue-and-Whites, the visit of the Pilsener is normally not a day when major celebrations are pending after the final whistle. For twelve years no home game was won against Victoria. Liberec finished sixth last season, repeating last year’s result. So that it goes in the table in this season again a bit further up, was installed about two weeks ago with Pavel Hoftych a new coach.
The 52-year-old coach can draw on a nearly identical team compared to the past season, with the saddle-proof defense is the showpiece. The guests still have the individually better squad on their own and the goal is set at Viktoria with the title win much higher than at Liberec. If successful, the sixth trick in the review of the last decade would succeed. For the match between Liberec and Viktoria Pilsen, our prediction is that the visitors will not lose again in Northern Bohemia and less than three goals at the end are marked on the scoreboard at the stadium u Nisy. The Liberec against Viktoria Pilsen Tipp goes hand in hand with a middle stint of five units.
Liberec:
The Modrobílí were always located in the upper midfield of the Czech Fortuna League in recent years. Also this year, such a placement seems likely. The troupe is solidly positioned for the conditions of the upper house in the Czech Republic, although it is not sufficient for the top ranks. As mentioned above, although no painful departures had to be coped with, so Liberec has a well-rehearsed team, but on the other hand, at the same time was not enough money available to strengthen significantly.
Last year Slovan’s defensive guaranteed that the championship group was reached in the end. However, this only came very close, because Mlada Boleslav, especially thanks to the Russian top scorer of the league, Nikolay Komlichenko, at the end was tied and even had the better goal difference. However, in the Czech Republic the direct comparison counts and here the kickers from North Bohemia had the nose ahead. How well the defense is at home, showed the record of only ten goals against after 15 home games in the regular season of the previous year. This value was only undercut by the upcoming opponent. Since the defensive of last year’s season is currently back on the turf, Pilsen awaits in the stadium u Nisy a quite challenging task.
As previously described, Coach Pavel Hoftych did not start his post at Liberec until the beginning of this month and has been coach of the U-20 national team of the Czech Republic or Spartak Trnava in Slovakia during his career. In 2012, he led the latter club under his direction to the runner-up in the Slovak Fortuna League.
Viktoria Pilsen:
The five-time champion had to be satisfied with the second place in the past season. It was the third year in a row that Slavia Prague and Viktoria Pilsen took turns in the first two places in the Fortuna League. That the title defense failed, was due to the offensive, which could not keep up with the capital city. In the end, the attack department had 22 fewer hits. With Jean-David Beauguel, however, the best scorer from last year could at least be held, although this was only allowed to sit on the bench last matchday.
The opening match against Sigma Olmütz was still easy after a gap and deserved to win 3: 1. Here, Ales Cermak presented himself from midfield in a great early form: The 24-year-old put all the hits of his club in the Doosan Aréna on. Similar to the opponent, no significant change in the squad was made in the summer break. Another parallel is the stable defense, which reached the third best value after the regular season last year. In addition, the defensive was reinforced in the summer with players such as the experienced Adam Hlousek by the Polish runner-up Legia Warsaw selectively.
PREDICTION: Plzen to win @ 2,05
