Theatrical falls? Kozel refuses. Zápotočný: They would have been booed in England, but we lost the match elsewhere

Referee Dominik Starý blew the whistle for 22 fouls against South Bohemia and awarded them seven yellow cards, including two for the expelled Nigerian Quadri Adediran. On the contrary, Liberec escaped without a warning and caused eight fouls.

Among other things, Zápotočný faced the question of whether, especially in the first act, the falls of the opponent’s players did not seem somewhat theatrical. “It pisses everyone off. But that’s our trend, it wouldn’t happen anywhere else. In England the fans would boo them. But as I say, this did not decide at all. They weren’t good and they didn’t present themselves like they did in Slovácko or with Hradec,” the coach pointed out.

The coach of the guests, Luboš Kozel, then resolutely denied that the goal of his team was any lying down or deliberate delay. “I don’t think the falls are theatrical. The home team played hard. It was based on our good movement and the opponent was late in the fights. There was a penalty for me at the beginning of the duel and other situations rightly required a yellow card. We try to play cleanly and I’m glad we played the match without a yellow card. The home team were tougher, maybe that was their goal. Unfortunately, we have some scars and I hope we will get out of them,” he assessed.

The fact remains that České Budějovice shot at the goal of debutant Hugo Jan Bačkovský in a blue jersey only once. The North Bohemians were better and more dangerous practically the whole match.

“The guys were not the head of the setup for what we want to play. In the first half, our attackers didn’t work, we didn’t win fights, everything was taken by the young Prebsl. We didn’t win the first or second ball, we were falling in the middle. Liberec played simply, jumped us, approached the match more responsibly. They played for breaks and we ate them up,” Zápotočný regretted.

On the contrary, Kozel noted with satisfaction that his team deservedly triumphed. He sighed only at the low efficiency.