Football. ua brings readers closer to the forthcoming opponent of Kiev Dynamo in the third qualifying round of the Champions League - Slavia.

Country: Czech Republic Year of foundation: 1892 Stadium: Eden Arena, 20 800 thousand. (1 match): Dynamo - Slavia 1: 2 (friendly match, 2016) Achievements: the champion of the Czech Republic - 4 times, the winner of the Czech Republic Cup - 4, the champion of Czechoslovakia - 22, the winner of the Cup of Czechoslovakia - 16.

Slavia - one of the strongest clubs in the Czech Republic, founded almost 130 years ago and having a trophy-filled museum. For their rich history, the Prazhdans have experienced both periods of exaltation and painful falls, but in recent years they have clearly revived and are on the move.

In November 2016, the Chinese company CEFC became virtually the sole owner of Slavia, having bought 99 percent of the shares, after which the case for the Czech club went up. Already at the end of the 2016-2017 season they won the first victory in the national championship in 7 years, and last year they won the country's cup, in Ligue 1, having satisfied themselves this time with silver medals.

It seems that this season Slavia does not plan to slow down, because its first match in the starting championship of the Czech Republic ended with the defeat of the opponent - Sigma with a score of 3: 0.

Eurocups:.

In the European League 2017-2018 Slavia finished the performance in the group stage, however it did it without a fight, having scored 8 points and taking the third place in the quartet, only 2 points behind the Astana.

The head coach of Prague, Indrich Tirshovskiy, has already admitted that his headquarters followed Dynamo as a potential rival long before the draw, which indicates the serious intentions of the Czech team to make it into the round of the Champions League play-offs this year.

Composition:.

At his disposal, Slavia has players, mostly unknown to a wide range of fans. Nevertheless, from this many of their players do not cease to be very high-quality performers. To begin with, we note the defender Michel Ngade-Ngajui, who, together with the Cameroon national team, won the African Nations Cup-2017 and entered the symbolic team of the tournament. At the club level, Michel is also doing well - he is the real pillar of Slavia's defense, combining quite good mobility and power. In addition, Ngade-Ngajui can be very dangerous when playing with the head in front of someone else's gate.

Another player to pay attention to is Jan Sikora. The career of the 24-year-old midfielder is difficult to call successful, because he lacks stability and regular game at a high level. Nevertheless, in the second half of last season, Jan won a place in the starting line-up of Slavia and today this midfielder plays a very important role in the center of the field for the Pragisians.

The main star The most famous and talented player of Slavia is midfielder Miroslav Stoch. At one time, this Slovak midfielder had a reputation as one of the most promising young footballers in Europe, but he did not manage to achieve really serious heights. Nevertheless, during his career, Stoch managed to play for such clubs as Chelsea, Twente and Fenerbahce, winning the FA Cup, the Netherlands championship, as well as the championship and the cup of Turkey.

Miroslav first of all - a creative football player, who has high speed, good technique and feels great on the right flank of the attack. Also one of Stoch's trump cards is a long-range strike, which Donetsk Shakhtar had already experienced during a friendly match last winter. Then Miroslav struck the gates of the "miners" with a shot from his half of the field, but the match still ended with a score of 3: 2 in favor of Donetsk.

What to expect from the match and from the opponent?.

Here we come to the main question - how serious is Slavia? On paper, the Prazhdans are indeed a more favorable option than the same Fenerbahce, but in fact an underestimation by the Dynamo can be very costly to the wards of Alexander Khatskevich.

In the fact that Slavia will be perfectly prepared for the fight and will carefully study the manner of the game of Kiev, you can not doubt. Given that the Czechs are acting in a similar to the Dynamo scheme 4-5-1, the main fight will unfold in the center of the field, where Dynamo should still have a certain advantage. Most likely, it is the Ukrainian team that will take the ball under control, whereas Slavia will try to take advantage of the talent of the same Sikora and Stoch and will look for happiness on the counterattacks.

For Dynamo, it is very important to get a positive result on the road, because Prague can perfectly close and are able to keep in the return game even a minimal advantage over the opponent.

In general, the Kievites are favorites to confront with Slavia, but the wards of Alexander Khatskevich should show maximum concentration and will be determined to fight, because it is hardly possible to take the prague with bare hands.

Ivan Kryminsky, Football. ua.