Simply put, this place is incredible. Four nights away in Prague (a place I had never been to before) meant I was always going to be looking to do a game. Originally, we were hopeful of going to Viktoria Plzen vs Olympiacos in the Champion’s League second qualifying round. However, Pilsen wasn’t the easiest of places to get to and tickets weren’t available on the day. It was last Wednesday when I noticed that the CEE Cup was being played in Prague. There were four games at two different venues on the first day of the CEE Cup yesterday (Wednesday, 24th July) – Stadion Evžena Rošického and Strahov Stadium.
We arrived in Prague on Sunday night and during the day on Monday was just spent looking around the place and going to a couple of museums. A boat party on Monday night was certainly an interesting event! Prior to finding out about the CEE Cup, I had found out about the ATP Challengers Prague Open tennis in Prague while we were there. We went to that on Tuesday and watched two matches – Jan Satral vs Pavel Nejdly and then a good game between Lukas Rosol and Kenny De Schepper. Most of the day Wednesday was spent at the CEE Cup. To the ground and as I’ve said, it’s simply incredible. It was opened in 1926 and you just walk in and think: “wow”. The capacity of the ground is 250,000 making it the biggest stadium in the world. Within the huge boundaries are eight pitches as well as a building where a ninth pitch could be. It’s hard to believe how such a thing could be built. Nowadays, the pitches are used for little competitive football apart from Sparta Prague’s youth teams. It is Sparta Prague’s training ground. You’d never seen anything like it in Britain. This game was played on the middle pitch on the opposite side to the changing rooms. People were having to climb quite a high railing to get into the seated section. I wish I had taken more pictures of this stadium now.
What made it even better was the teams we were watching. It’s not very often I get the chance to watch the under-19 teams of Dinamo Zagreb and Shakhtar Donetsk!
It was Dinamo Zagreb who started the brighter and their first chance came with 10 minutes on the clock. Ilan Pejić did well to cut in from the wing and get a shot away, but his 20-yard effort was curled narrowly wide.
Shakhtar then came into the game though, and good football saw them have the ball in the net within 20 minutes. Free flowing football eventually picked out Denys Svitiukha who poked home, but he was ruled offside.
Although chances were at somewhat of a premium, it was an entertaining game. Not long before the half hour mark, Niko Janković and Dominik Rešetar linked up very well for the Croatian outfit. The latter teed up a team mate, but his side footed effort was just too high.
Following the break, Zagreb took the lead within a minute of the restart. Rešetar drove down the wing before picking out Bernard Karrica who blasted the ball into the net at the near post.
Just four minutes later, Zagreb had a great chance to double their lead when they were awarded a penalty. Jakov-Anton Vasilj’s trickery saw him beat one Shakhtar man before trying to beat Dmytro Kapinus who handled the ball giving the referee no option but to point to the spot. Janković took responsibility and went straight down the middle but a strong save from Mykyta Turbaievskyi kept Shakhtar’s deficit at only one.
Still ahead though, Zagreb managed the game well and restricted their opposition to very little.
It wasn’t until the 72nd minute when Shaktar Donetsk had their next effort. Georgiy Sudakov took aim with a 22 yard free-kick, but his effort was way too high.
With just two minutes to play, Zagreb went close. Luka Jančić was allowed to stroll forward, but his powerful effort was well saved by Turbaievskyi.
Forty seconds into injury time, Shakhtar managed to grab a point. Sudakov’s free-kick was headed towards goal where Nikola Čavlina saved, but Dmytro Avdyeyev was there to smash home the rebound and the points were shared.
Full-time: Dinamo Zagreb U19s 1-1 Shakhtar Donetsk U19s
Next up for me is Brandon United vs Easington Colliery on Saturday.
Dinamo Zagreb U19s: Čavlina, Nikolić (c), Jurišić, Braun (Stranput, 60′), Ravliga (Benčić, 46′), Vidović (Vasilj, 46′), Magdić (Tomek, 46′), Janković (Jančić, 60′), Jurčec (Karrica, 46′), Rešetar, Pejić (Kukrika, 60′)
Unused subs: Bićanić, Krkalić, Vukasović
Shakhtar Donetsk U19s: Turbayevskyi, Kapinus (Kuliiev, 58′), Kozik, Yakuba (c), Rudavskyi (Buleza, 68′), Hulko (Shostak, 60′), Avdyeyev, Kobilyanskyi, Svitiukha (Veklenko, 60′), Sudakov, Abdullayev (Khromei, 70′)
Unused subs: Pusankov, Shevchenko, Kulalaiev, Bendera, Umanets, Chuiko
Admission: Free
Attendance: 60
Programme: Free
Referee: Patrick Herbach
Bottle of water: 25 CZK
Connor's Football Travels 