While the players of Sparta scored in the last matches from contrived or controversial penalties, Olomouc did not get a penalty kick in Sunday’s duel with Letenský. And the Hanáci didn’t understand, they demanded her after Kaan Kairinen’s intervention. In vain. “Are we afraid to whistle against Sparta?” asked Sigma midfielder Martin Pospíšil. Prague won 1:0 in Olomouc.
Sparta led 1-0 at Androva Stadium thanks to a lucky strike by Martin Minčev after half-time, although they did not perform convincingly. Even after the break, she did not improve and Sigma sought to equalize.
She could have expected him from the penalty, but referee Jan Všetečka did not whistle her in the 65th minute after the visitors’ midfielder Kaan Kairinen hit the ball in his own penalty area with his upper limb.
“Nowadays, when we have VAR and when we can look at it, I think we saw that it was probably a hand,” said home midfielder Martin Pospíšil.
“I can’t understand that after watching the video, it’s not the hand. If we’re afraid of Sparta, to whistle against them, I don’t know,” he added.
Hanák’s coach Václav Jílek had the same opinion. “This hand is a hundred percent penalty for me. We can talk about the place of the hit. But it’s not a natural position, it’s a hand away from the body and a penalty save for me,” repeated the coach.
But the home team did not get the chance to take a penalty kick. “I’m disappointed by this. Some people discouraged me from returning because of these things. Today I found out about it firsthand and it’s not pleasant,” said Pospíšil bitterly, who returned to Olomouc after nine years, most recently working in Bialystok, Poland.
In the end, Sparta defended a narrow victory, still leads the table by two points and is a little closer to the first title since 2014.
