Tied drama in extra time

15. 06. 2009 |  

In the opening ten minutes, the Plzeň players indicated to the Boleslav team that they did not intend to leave the points in Boleslav without a battle. The ball flew across the Boleslav goal area twice, after a centred pass by Petržela from the right, and another by Jiráček from the left. Fortunately, nobody from the Plzeň team managed to direct the ball towards goal. A shot by Kolář was off target and a shooting attempt by Jiráček was saved by Miller.

A nervous Boleslav team made mistakes in their build up and only seriously endangered the Plzeň in the 14^th minute when Poláček centred the ball to Papadopulos who saw his header turned away for a corner by the goalkeeper Ticháček.

Rolko stretched for a Poláček cross in front of the Plzeň goal in the 15^th minute and was pulled down by the Plzeň defender Ševinský. The referee Adam ordered a penalty kick without hesitation but as Papadopulos was preparing to execute the kick, it was cancelled by the referee to general surprise!

Rolko's pass found the head of Chramosta but his shot was blocked by a defending player in the 19^th minute.

The second half started cautiously after the interval. Then Plzeň players slowly began to work their way into the game and Horváth's free kick from more than twenty-metres out rattled the cross-bar behind Miller's back in the 53^rd minute, after a foul committed by Hrdlička. The Boleslav defence had a great deal of luck again in the 60^th minute as Kolář again found the cross bar with his header.

The Boleslav players steadied and at last pushed towards the opponent goal. Poláček beat the wall from a free kick but none of his teammates could get on the end of his cross. Uhrin, the Boleslav head-coach, sent two other forwards (Pecka and Táborský) on the pitch; however it seemed that the crowd would not see any goals.

When the fourth referee Býma signalled four-minutes of extra time, the Boleslav players hurled themselves goalward with their last hope. Kúdela crossed from the right-hand line in the second minute of extra time. The keeper Ticháček misjudged the flight of the ball and caught it after it had already crossed the goal-line. The assistant referee signalled a goal clearly, the main referee confirmed his verdict and the Boleslav players revelled in joy - 1:0. However, the drama was not over and the Plzeň players attacked the Boleslav defence successfully. The Plzeň defender Limberský shot from approximately twenty meters and found the inside of the top right-hand post past an outstretched Miller - 1:1. It was already the fifth minute of extra time. The match should have ended already one minute before. Only the referee Adam knows why the match continued...