Week 15: Olomouc beat Sparta after 19 years as Plzeň fail to win for the first time

The visitors threatened a comeback when Tomáš Přikryl pulled one back, but Dukla clicked into another gear and scored two second half goals, one from Jan Holenda and the other from Djuranovič, to put the game beyond doubt.

Sigma Olomouc’s home record against Sparta is poor to say the least: it has been nineteen years since the Prague side left the Andrův stadión with their tail between their legs. However, that near two-decade run ended on Sunday, thanks to a scrappy goal from Martin Sladký. But as anybody in football will tell you, it doesn’t matter how ugly they are: they all count.

After coming off the bench to net a spectacular winner last weekend, Michal Škoda was again amongst the goals for Zbrojovka Brno. This time, he scored twice and led Brno to a 2-0 win over Vysočina Jihlava. The win sees Zbrojovka move up to twelfth while Jihlava slip down to fifteenth.

Baník Ostrava leapfrogged Jihlava and moved out of the relegation zone thanks to their 2-1 victory over Karviná in a Silesian derby. The win was Baník’s first in the league since the opening day of the season and was sealed by their talismanic veteran forward, Milan Baroš, who got the winner five minutes before the final whistle.

With Baník picking up three points and moving off the bottom of the table, Slovácko now prop up the rest of the division. The Uherské Hradiště side were hoping to take advantage of Zlín’s Europa League trip to Moldova in midweek, but instead, they found their Moravian counterparts in fine form.

The defending MOL Cup champions showed no ill signs of their jet-setting lifestyle and picked up the victory that their performance deserved thanks to goals from Ibrahim Traore and Dame Diop. Youngster Filip Kubala scored his first ever senior goal for the visitors late on, but as it came in the ninetieth minute, it turned out to be nothing more than a consolation.

After securing their place in the last 32 of the Europa League with a comprehensive victory over FCSB, Viktoria Plzeň returned to domestic action by making the trip up north to take on Teplice. The hosts entered the game defending an unbeaten home record, while the visitors were yet to drop a single point in the league. What would give?

In the end, the 0-0 meant that the runaway leaders had failed to win a HET Liga game for the first time this season, But the draw meant that the west Bohemian side would equal their own league record of going 16 games with defeat. Pavel Vrba’s team will have the chance to make history when they host Jablonec on Sunday.

Jablonec were in action on Monday evening when they welcomed Slavia Prague to a rather chilly Stadion Střelnice. The defending champions, fresh off a Europa League win of their own, created a number of chances in the first half, but only entered the break 1-0 up thanks to Jaromír Zmrhal’s deft head.

But as the snow fell, the hosts came back into the tie and equalised after a rapid counter-attack, which was finished off by the teenager Ondřej Mihálik. The result saw Slavia lose ground in the race for a Champions League place.

Another side to slip up in the race for Europe was Slovan Liberec, who were held to a goalless draw by Bohemians 1905. That result, coupled with the tie between Jablonec and Slavia means that at the halfway stage of the season it is Sigma Olomouc who occupy second, and are therefore in pole position to claim a Champions League spot alongside Viktoria Plzeň.