Struggling Slavia face Arsenal as grim record looms

Hosting Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday, Slavia Prague are facing the mammoth task of ending a drawn-out winless streak in the competition as an unwelcome record looms.

The Czech champions have won a single game out of 23 in the Champions League – on their debut in the competition against Steaua Bucharest in September 2007.

They have since only managed eight draws and 14 losses over four Champions League campaigns including the current one.

“Of course the longer it gets, the more unpleasant it is,” said Jindrich Trpisovsky, the Slavia manager since 2017.

“The streak is long and as we keep talking about it, I brood over it more than in the past,” he added.

Record holders AEK Athens failed to win 24 straight games from 1992-2006, while Steaua, now known as FCSB, recorded 23 winless games between 2006 and 2013.

Slavia host Arsenal fresh off the back of their 1-0 victory over Liverpool at Anfield, which would daunt most teams, before Villarreal at home and Bayern Munich away in their next European games.

“Of course we know how tough European games are and how hard you must work to win,” said Trpisovsky.

“In some games we were on the front foot and we got beaten. This is the beauty of football.”

‘Unlucky’

Slavia have faced Arsenal three times in the Champions League, recording a draw and two losses including a humiliating 7-0 drubbing in London in 2007.

“Slavia simply face the best teams whose quality is obvious,” said Vladimir Smicer, a former Slavia striker who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005.

“I think they were unlucky a few times,” he told AFP.

Slavia were close to breaking the hoodoo in this year’s opener against Lens – reduced to 10 men, they took a 2-1 lead in the 89th minute but squandered the chance and lost 3-2.

“That’s bad luck really. But the streak is unpleasant in any case,” said Smicer, who played for Lens from 1996-1999.

“And they are now facing teams like Arsenal and Bayern and these are games you don’t expect Slavia to win.”

Smicer said Slavia should rather have beaten lower-ranked teams like Sabah to whom they lost 2-0 in Baku in October.

“Slavia has a deep roster so the coach can adapt to the playing style of their opponents, but in the end it’s all about quality,” he added.

“In Baku they simply underperformed, like in some other games, and that extended the winless streak. There have been games they should have won but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

Slavia will host Arsenal on Nov 4, exactly a year after losing 3-0 to the Gunners in the Champions League at home.

Slavia defender David Zima hailed the competition as “a football university”.

“It’s the top level and you can’t stress out about having to win now. This is simply football and you can’t always win. You just need a little luck.”

Trpisovsky said everything would have to click into place for Slavia to stand a chance against the giants.

“Everything has to go our way and we need to give 100% and then we can succeed in any game.”

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