Sports News
Teplice have scored their 1000th goal in the football league, and continue their incredible run. Sparta Prague lead the table but are in crisis after a poor display in the UEFA Cup and their first loss of the season, while the two Czech clubs left in the UEFA Cup have both drawn clubs from Greece. In tennis, Jiri Novak is looking forward to putting his feet up after a wonderful season. For all those stories in detail, listen to Sports News.
Teplice make incredible league run under new coach Straka
"I'm satisfied of course with how things have gone - it's an amazing record. It's not down to the trainer at all - it's the players, they have to want it and have the will, they have to be motivated."
Against Blsany on Saturday Teplice scored their 1000th league goal, and the strike was enough to secure them their eighth win in nine games. Goal-scorer Ludek Zelenka said the win itself was more important than the milestone.
"To me the main thing was that it meant we won three points. That's the most important thing. Maybe the fact that it was our 1000th goal will sink in later, but it wasn't like we were all thinking about it in the changing room before the game. We had agreed that the masseur would wear a t-shirt reading 'Teplice - 1,000 goals in the league' and when I scored we ran up to him and lifted him into the air, so as to remind people around the country of our achievement."
Sparta Prague in crisis, despite being league leaders
Leaders Sparta Prague have suffered their first league defeat of the season, 1:0 at home to Zlin. With that defeat coming on top of Sparta's exit from the UEFA Cup at the hands of Turkey's lowly Denislizspor, the club's fans are up in arms. There were calls at Letna stadium on Sunday for the heads of both chairman Vlastimil Kostal and coach Jozef Jarabinsky. Bizarrely, Jarabinsky has blamed the club's crisis on former manager Jaroslav Hrebik, who a) brought Sparta to the second group stage of the Champions League last season, and b) left the club a full seven months ago.
Czech clubs in UEFA Cup third round both face Greek opposition
Viktoria Zizkov were also knocked out of the UEFA Cup last Thursday; they lost 4:0 on aggregate to Spain's Real Betis. The good news is two Czech clubs have made it through to the third round; Slovan Liberec beat Ipswich on penalties and now face Panathinaikos of Greece while Slavia Prague - after a magnificent 5:1 second-leg win over Partizan Belgrade - have drawn another Greek side, PAOK Salonika.
Novak looks forward to break after great season
The Czech number one Jiri Novak says he is looking forward to sitting at home and eating babovka cake until Christmas, after his season ended a couple of days earlier than he'd hoped, when Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero put him out of the group stage of the Masters Cup in Shanghai. Novak wasn't too upset though; he said he was glad to have reached the elite tournament, which he described as the greatest success of his life.
