Europa League - Match Preview: Sparta Prague versus Palermo
Sparta Prague, the Czech club side take on Palermo from the Italian Serie A in the one of the opening matches of the 2010-2011 Europa League. It will be the fourth time in five years that Prague are participating in the Europa League, in the years preceding
the 2009-2010 season, Europa League was known as the UEFA Cup.
Despite being such regular participants in the Europa League, Sparta Prague have never progressed past the competitions group stages in the last five years. Something that has to be rectified sooner rather than later through a method of trial and error.
Czech Champions Sparta are doing okay in their domestic league as they are currently on fifteen points in the Czech football league’s division one from a total number of eight games.
An average start, like the one that has been in place for Sparta this season is certainly not acceptable for the club’s fans but a good way to rectify this will be to beat Palermo at home on Thursday.
Sparta’s coach, Jozef Chovanec said in his pre-match conference that his team had been closely assessing their opponents by watching video tapes of Palermo’s performances against Cagliari and Brescia.
He hinted that his team were well aware of their opponent’s weaknesses and were prepared to exploit them to the fullest extent. On the other hand, Palermo qualified for the Europa league courtesy of their fifth place finish in the Italian Serie A in the
2009-2010 season.
What Palermo would’ve ideally wanted was to finish fourth and grab a shot to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, but Sampdoria just about piped them to finish fourth in the final Serie A standings. Nonetheless, it was a remarkable achievement for the
Italian club, which has come a long way in the past two seasons.
The main worrying factor for Palermo’s fans will be the speculation that has recently surfaced in the media. Media reports and expert opinions have suggested that their squad isn’t good enough to compete on three fronts this season i.e. Coppa Italia, Serie
A and the UEFA Europa League.
In the summer of 2010, in the transfer window, Palermo parted ways with some of their most important players and this has led to a crisis of confidence at the club. Their start to the 2010-2011 Serie A season hasn’t been that impressive either as it has
been their worst start to a league season in the last six season. Six years ago precisely, Palermo earned their promotion to Serie A after finishing as champions of Serie B. Ever since then the club has gone from strength to strength and now finds themselves
at the pinnacle of European football.
In their opening two encounters of the Serie A, Palermo drew the first one against Cagliari and then lost the second one to Brescia by a score line of three goals to two. Thursday’s match against Sparta therefore does not come at an ideal time for the Italian
club which is suffering from a bad run of form at the moment.
Abel Hernandez, Palermo’s striker said in the club’s pre-match conference that their start to the season has not been a good one and he stressed the fact that his team needed to improve in every aspect of their game. He also went onto say that winning against
Prague on Thursday can be a big boost for the team’s fortunes.
Sparta Prague will be without Juraj Kucka, Marek Matejovsky and Stepan Vachousek because of suspension whilst Palermo will have to deal with the absence of Fabrizio Miccoli and Mauricio Pinilla as both the strikers are sidelined because of injury. Antonio
Nocerino is not available for selection for the Italian club as well due to a suspension.
Despite the fact that Palermo has had a pretty horrendous start to their season, they do possess the quality to at least get a draw in this opening encounter against the Czech Champions, Sparta Prague, whose defensive frailties have been well documented.
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