Week 11: A hat-trick of hat-tricks and a streak gets broken
There was a trio of hat-tricks as Josef Šural, Evgeny Kabaev and Golgol Mebrahtu all fired their clubs to victory, but the biggest goals of the weekend came at Eden where Slovan Liberec defeated Slavia Prague.
Since being appointed Slavia manager just over a year ago, Jaroslav Šilhavý has put together an unbeaten run that stretches back thirty-six games. That undefeated record came to a crashing end on Sunday evening when Slovan Liberec, his former side no less, left the capital with a 2-1 victory.
Roman Potočný opened the scoring for the visitors, heading in Vladimír Coufal’s deep cross after a well-orchestrated counter-attack. Serbian midfielder Miloš Bosančić doubled Slovan’s lead from the penalty spot with twenty minutes to go, effectively sealing the points for Jindřich Trpišovský. A late goal from Tomáš Necid was nothing more than consolation for the red-whites.
Mladá Boleslav returned to winning ways with a 5-1 thumping of Zlín. Coming off the back of a strong showing against FC Copenhagen in the Europa League, the current MOL Cup champions started brightly and took the lead in the third minute. But from that moment, it was one-way traffic. Tomáš Přikryl and Matěj Chaluš both found the back of the net before Golgol Mebrahtu got his hat-trick.
After losing to Viktoria Plzeň last week, Sparta Prague rebounded with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Jablonec in the Czech northeast. Josef Šural was the hat-trick hero, though Sparta’s management and fans will be monitoring the situation of Václav Kadlec closely; the striker left the game early after picking up an injury.
Plzeň took on one of their former managers over the weekend as they welcomed Roman Pivarník and Zbrojovka Brno to the Doosan Arena. The runaway league leaders recorded a comfortable 3-0 win. Michael Krmenčík, Tomáš Hořava and Jan Kopic all netted in a blistering fifteen-minute spell before half-time, a passage of play that Pavel Vrba described as the best he’s seen so far this season.
In a rare Thursday-night league game, Dukla Prague and Slovácko played out a 1-1 draw and the same result was seen in Friday’s fixture between Baník Ostrava and Sigma Olomouc. Teplice overcame Karviná thanks to a late strike from David Vanecek to keep up their near-perfect record at Na Stínadlech this season.
Finally, Bohemians 1905 ran riot over Vysočina Jihlava. The 4-2 scoreline was not a fair reflection of Bohemka’s dominance, but Evgeny Kabaev twelve minute hat-trick in the first half certainly was. Jihlava gradually got back into the tie and turned it into something a contest but by that time, the damage had already been done.
