HC Sparta Prague » The season starts, we will start the Champions League at home!
1/9/2022 Daniel Ryl
For the first time since the May final against Třinec, we will go to a tough match, with which we will welcome Denmark’s Aalborg from 19:30 on Friday, September 2. They will be our opponent not only in the Champions League, but also in the new year. The Danish champion will be no slouch, so we need your loud support in the Fortuna sports hall.
What awaits us in the Champions League?
The new season of the Champions League started already with the first batch of matches on Thursday, in which only Hradec Králové participated among the Czech representatives. Our team with Třinec awaits the premiere on Friday, against the Danish champion z Aalborg. On Sunday, we will meet the Swedish vice-champion for a change Luleafter which, after the Scandinavian rematches, we will complete the group with a double-header against Yukurita.
The group stage culminates at the end of October, the knockout stage starts in mid-November. The two best teams from each group will advance to the round of 16, while all four of our previous participations have ended in progression.
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Aalborg’s preparation: winning tournament, burning reinforcements
The pirates will arrive in Prague in good order. Although they lost narrowly 3:4 against Frederikshavn in the first warm-up game, they beat Esbjerg 2:1 in the second match. The winning streak continued at the KIK Trophy tournament as well.
At the start of the tournament, the Danes beat Norwegian Frisk 4:3, who scored two goals from rookie Trevor Gooch. “We showed great determination and fought hard for a valuable victory against a strong Norwegian opponent,“ enjoyed the win of assistant Ronny Larsen.
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The successful preparation culminated in a successful final match, in which, although the new signing from Hungary and the overseas ECHL did not score, Aborg confirmed the role of favorite and beat Ringerike clearly 5:0.
PREPARATORY MATCHES OF THE PIRATES:
Aalborg – Frederikshavn 3:4
Aalborg – Esbjerg 2:1
Frisk – Aalborg 3:4
Ringerik – Aalborg 0:5
They are reinforcements for the Danes! Tough group, coach coach
Experienced defender Dominik Graňák will probably start in the match against Aalborg, who comes to Sparta for monthly help when some players are injured. “The whole arrangement went very quickly. When Sparta is mentioned, everyone knows it’s a big name. I am happy to be here, either for a few weeks or for a longer period, if they are happy with me,” says the Slovak defender after his arrival.
Even his experience will be useful for the confrontation with Nordic hockey. “It’s a tough group that will test us well and prepare us for the start of the season. We much prefer to play Champions Hockey League at this stage than friendlies,” warns coach Pavel Patera.
Did you know that…
A striker was also active in Aalborg fourteen years ago Roman Vopat, who changed the 2005/2006 championship seasons in our jersey. In the summer, two years later, he moved from Sweden’s Leksand to Denmark, after which he scored ten goals and nine assists in 28 games.
Tickets for Lulea are still on sale!
You can buy tickets online for the match against Denmark on the day of the match, while tickets are also available for Sunday’s match with Lulea. The attractive vice-champion of the Swedish league does not arrive in Holešovice every day in Europe, so it is an ideal opportunity to help our team in a difficult confrontation with the top team.