Slavia on top after wild 5–3 win in Plzeň
Slavia Prague returned to the top of the Czech First League (Chance Liga) after a thrilling 5–3 victory over Viktoria Plzeň in the 15th round of the season. Tomáš Chorý, playing against his former club, was the star of the match, scoring twice at Plzeň’s Doosan Arena.
Saturday's match was a heated affair. It began by being delayed ten minutes due to smoke and pyrotechnics from Slavia fans and went on to last an extraordinary 114 minutes. It featured eleven yellow cards, became the highest-scoring game of the season, and was the first ever between the two clubs to produce eight goals.
Youssoupha Sanyang gave Slavia the lead in the 27th minute, but Tomáš Ladra soon leveled the score for Plzeň. Before halftime, Tomáš Chorý and Štěpán Chaloupek put Slavia 3–1 ahead. Chorý added another goal after the break, while Lukáš Červ and Amar Memić narrowed the gap for Plzeň to 3–4. In the closing minutes, Christos Zafeiris scored Slavia’s fifth goal to reaffirm the victory and calm the ending of the game.
Slavia, last year’s Czech First League winner, remains the only unbeaten team of the season and lead the table by two points ahead of Prague rivals Sparta. Sparta, meanwhile, drew 2–2 with Teplice on Saturday and has won just one of its last five league matches. Third in the table is Jablonec, with Sigma Olomouc next, while Plzeň dropped to fifth, eight points behind Slavia.
“It’s a bit of déjà vu — I always enjoy coming back here. I know a lot of people in this club, and scoring twice is just the icing on the cake,” said Chorý after the match. The Slavia striker was pleased with the match despite being booed several times by the Plzeň supporters during the fiery clash.
