Viktoria Plzen captain Patrik Hrošovský is aware that his team is far from reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League. The 34-year-old Slovakian midfielder told reporters after a 1-2 home loss to Levski that the team has what it takes to beat an opponent of the rank of the “blues” from Sofia, but still remained without a point after the third round.
Pilsen's chances of participating in the elimination rounds in the spring of 2027 have significantly decreased.
If they want to keep any chances of reaching at least the first 24 teams in the Europa League, the Czechs must take points in their next European match against the Norwegian Lillestrøm.
„It will be difficult with the promotion. Now we have an opponent against whom we may play better. We wanted to break the bad luck against Levski. Because we had a home match against an opponent who was beatable“, said Hrošovski.
The Bulgarian team won for the first time in the league and, unlike Pilsen, already has four points in the table. „The opponent showed some quality, but we had what it took to win the match. Unfortunately, we made it easy for them. It will be difficult, but now we have to move mainly to the league, because we have to climb up in it“, said the Prievidza-born Slovakian midfielder.
Coach Radoslav Kovacs said the day before the match that it would be necessary to prevent Viktoria from conceding cheap goals at inappropriate times. But that is exactly what the players did.
„Unambiguously. Both of their goals came from not even great positions. We conceded the first one just before the break, the second one - not long after we managed to equalize. And that was the decisive moment“, said Hrošovski.
„The equalizer should have been an advantage for our side, but we immediately conceded a goal to make it 1:2. We were positioned correctly then, we had ten players in front of the ball. But they just beat us with a vertical pass and scored an easy goal from it. That was the deciding factor“, said Hrošovski.
Viktoria Plzen was also hoping to get a penalty for a possible handball in the penalty area by Marko Grujić. The situation was reviewed for a long time on video, but the penalty was not confirmed.
“The referee said he was looking for a convincing shot, where the handball would have been obvious. He claimed he didn't see it in real time or it wasn't enough“, said the Slovakian captain, who communicated with referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández from Spain about the matter.
Viktoria's performance is in stark contrast to last season, as they were the only team to go through the entire league stage without a loss, but this year they are still without a point after three of eight rounds. “We will look for some positives in our performance, but the result is that we lost. We need to collect points, results, so it is negative“, said Hroszowski.