Week 12: Liberec thrash Jablonec in the Ještěd derby

Within sixty seconds, Slovan Liberec were 1-0 down on home soil to their local rivals Jablonec. Stanislav Tecl’s early goal had silenced the Stadion u Nisy and brought a Liberec side flying high after beating Slavia last week back down to earth with a thud.

However, the game between these two neighbours turned on its head as Slovan roared back to win a memorable encounter 4-1. The undoubted star of the show was Milan Kerbr, who scored a hat-trick in an all-action display down the Liberec left. With five goals in two games, Kerbr will surely be on Karel Jarolím’s radar for the Czech Republic’s upcoming friendlies.

After the two sides met in the MOL Cup in midweek, Sparta Prague and Baník Ostrava locked horns for the second time in four days. And once again the two produced fireworks, though this time it was Sparta Prague who emerged victorious, getting a measure of revenge for their shock elimination from the cup.

In a topsy-turvy game the hosts went ahead twice, only to be pegged back by Baník. Josef Šural opened the scoring, only for the veteran Milan Baroš to grab a well-deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark. After the break, the two sides went at it like hammer and tongs, with Ondřej Zahustel and the Brazilian Dyian Carlos de Azevedo finding the net within minutes of each other. The winning goal came from Slovak centre-back Lukás Štetina, who got his first in Sparta colours since moving from Dukla. Not a bad a time to score it, you might say.

Sigma Olomouc required a second-half goal from David Houska to squeeze past a resilient Teplice side to keep pace with Slavia Prague in second. The defending champions had a far easier weekend than their Moravian counterparts however, the eased past Slovácko 3-0 thanks to goals from Tomáš Souček, Milan Škoda and Mick van Buren.

There are no prizes for guessing who remains top of the HET Liga, that honour is still Viktoria Plzeň’s and the west Bohemian side made it twelve from twelve thanks to their 3-1 win over Karviná. With that defeat, Karviná have slipped to fourteenth and just a point off the foot of the table.

Zbrojovka Brno prop the other fifteen teams up, though they picked up a credible – if not inspiring – point from their tie with Dukla Prague on Saturday. Dukla, will perhaps feel aggrieved that they couldn’t take all three points home with them after creating the marginally better chances.

To contrast Dukla’s fortunes, their fellow Prague side Bohemians 1905 will undoubtedly feel relieved that they managed to escape this weekend with a draw. Bohemians welcomed Zlín to Ďolíček and were comprehensively outplayed by the visitors but just couldn’t find their finishing boots.

Golgol Mebrahtu does know where he finishing boots are though and the Sudanese-born player netted his fifth goal in three games to help Mladá Boleslav overcome strugglers Vysočina Jihlava 2-1. After a shaky start to the season under Dušan Uhrin Jr, Mladá Boleslav are now unbeaten in four league games and slowly climbing their way up the table.