Hosting Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday, Slavia Prague are facing the mammoth task of ending a drawn-out winless streak in the competition as an unwelcome record looms. The Czech champions have won a single game out of 23 in the Champions League — on their debut in the competition against Steaua Bucharest in September 2007. They have since only managed eight draws and 14 losses over four Champions League campaigns including the current one.
Slavia have faced Arsenal three times in the Champions League, recording a draw and two losses including a humiliating 7-0 drubbing in London in 2007. Smicer said Slavia should rather have beaten lower-ranked teams like Sabah to whom they lost 2-0 in Baku in October. Slavia will host Arsenal on November 4, exactly a year after losing 3-0 to the Gunners in the Champions League at home.
“Of course the longer it gets, the more unpleasant it is,” said Jindrich Trpisovsky, the Slavia manager since 2017. “Slavia simply face the best teams whose quality is obvious,” said Vladimir Smicer, a former Slavia striker who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005.
