FC Viktoria Plzeň – FK Karabach – Michal Bílek praised the fighting spirit of the players – ŠPORT.SK

today 08:39 | It was August 5, 2021, and Viktoria Plzeň lost humiliatingly in the 3rd preliminary round of the Conference League 2:4 on the ground of the Welsh team The New Saints, then advanced at home after the penalty drama. However, the “Victorians” did not make it to the group. Now, after a year and two weeks, Viktoria is the champion of the Czech Republic and will again play in the Champions League group. HJK Helsinki, Šeriff Tiraspol and FK Karabach – these were difficult opponents of Pilsen in the qualification for the Champions League. However, the players of the Czech champion on the roster with Slovaks Marián Tvrdon, René Dedič, Matej Trus and Erik Jirk won five out of six matches, and drew with Karabakh in Baku. “Huge joy! We did very well in the preliminaries, we won five out of six matches and drew once. The promotion is deserved!” enthusiastic coach Michal Bílek stated for the Pilsen club website. “This team is a bunch of fighters who never give up and I am proud to coach them. We deserve to play in the Champions League,” he added. For the former coach of the Czech and Kazakhstan national teams, leading the team in the Champions League will be one of the highlights of his career. However, the 2:1 home win against Karabakh did not come easily, the European-beaten opponent from Azerbaijan caused great problems for the Czech team. “It’s a shame that we didn’t take the chance right at the beginning and then we got a goal. I really appreciate that the team didn’t give up. We achieved what we wanted. The Champions League will be in Pilsen, that’s a huge success,” said Bílek. Read also Viktoria Plzeň was able to do it. The Czech champion will play again in the group stage of the League… For Viktoria Plzeň, it will be the fourth participation in the group stage of the Champions League. It was introduced for the first time in the autumn of 2011, in competition with AC Milan, Barcelona and BATE Borisov, the Czech champion finished third and played in the European League in the spring. The second participation came two years later, Pilsen footballers also finished third in the group. This time their opponents were Bayern Munich, Manchester City and CSKA Moscow. The third participation in the group of the millionaire competition brought again the 3rd place in the table, Viktoria found herself in matches against CSKA Moscow, AS Rome and Real Madrid. European spring followed again in the west of Bohemia. Pilsen will get to know their opponents in the current edition at Thursday’s draw in Istanbul, Viktoria will appear in the fourth basket. In the first, there is, for example, defending champion Real Madrid or stars Paris St. Germain, in the second, among others, the defeated finalist from the past season and six-time champion Liverpool.