Sparta preparing for Champions League qualifier against Žilina

Sparta Prague are preparing for one of their biggest games of the season, when they host Slovakia’s Žilina in the first leg of a tie for a place in European football’s top club competition the Champions League. Sparta will be without three key players on Tuesday night, with one of them, Marek Matějovský, also due to miss next Wednesday’s second leg through suspension. The Czech title holders last reached the group stage of the lucrative competition five years ago.