Oscar Dorley’s Slavia Prague Miss Out on UEFA Champions League Spot
Dorley in possession of the ball during the first leg against Ferencváros in Hungary
Slavia Prague will now have to fight for a spot in the UEFA Europa League after failing to progress to the next round of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League qualifiers.
The Czech Republic league champions defeated Hungarian top-tier side Ferencváros 1-0 in the return-leg of the third round qualifiers, but did not guarantee their qualification after they lost 2-0 away in the first-leg.
Slavia Prague went with their all in a hunt for a spot in the Champions League and got the match opener in the 36th minute but the Hungarian outfit, hanging on their victory in the opening match, defended their 2-1 aggregate score for the rest of the game to deny the Czech Republican outfit.
Dorley featured in both home and away matches, playing the full 90 minutes in both matches in the left-back position. The 23-year-old continues to enjoy the confidence reposed in him by his coach Jindřich Trpišovský , who believes that the Liberian player can be one of the best defenders in the world.
”He himself did not believe that he could dig on the edge of the defense. And when I told him he reminded me of Marcelo from Real Madrid and Davies from Bayern Munich, he laughed and everyone laughed with him. But I saw him there from the beginning.
"He played in the middle, but the competition that prevails in our team and with the style of play that we prefer, he did not have a chance to make it into the line-up [first XI]. In the end, I came up with the idea that we would teach him to defend and make him a defender.”
Slavia Prague will now play in the Europa League playoff round. The first legs will be played on 19 August, and the second legs on 26 August 2021.
An aggregate win for Prague will take them through to the group stage of the Europa league, the second-tier competition of European club football, ranking below the UEFA Champions League and above the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Anything less than a win means they will be transferred to the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage.