Preview

We bring you a number of interesting facts ahead of the friendly game.
 
At the turn of the millennium
 
Slavia causes all Shakhtar fans to feel nostalgic, because the Donetsk team made it past these very opponents back in August 2000 on their way to their first Champions League group stage. Having suffered a narrow home defeat, Viktor Prokopenko's men tried to rip open the Praha side’s defence throughout the return leg. At the very end, Vorobei brought the game into extra time, with Sergei Atelkin bringing the Pitmen a history-shaping win in the 97th minute after Andrei’s assist.
 
Champions
 
These days, Slavia are four-time champions of the Czech Republic. Last season, the Red-and-Whites secured the title, having outperformed Viktoria Plzen by two points. Since they failed to make it to the Champions League through the qualifying stage (after defeating BATE and being relegated to the play-offs by APOEL), the Prague side took part in the UEFA European League group stage, claiming the third spot just below Villarreal and Astana.
 
Sobol vs Shakhtar
 
In December, a 41-year-old Jindrich Trpisovsky - the former coach of Slovan Leberec - took the helm of Slavia. At the same time, the chances of the Prague players to claim the title do not look optimistic anymore as Viktoria have a 14-point edge, with Sigma, Slovan and Sparta just breathe down their neck. The Czechs’ attacking pace is set by last season’s top scorer Milan Skoda (he is still the team’s goal-scoring leader), with Jaromir Zmrhal and Miroslav Stoch being the top assisting men, alongside the experienced Danny. Eduard Sobol, who was loaned out to Slavia by Shakhtar, makes regular appearances down the left wing.
 
6-6 stalemate
 
In the Dubai Cup, Slavia started with suffering a major defeat at Zenit (1-5), thrashing Guangzhou Evergrande with the same score in their next game (brace by Boril, goals by Zmrhal, Necid and Soucek).
 
Saturday, 2 pm
 
In the course of the Orange-and-Blacks’ training in Dubai, the kick-off time of the meeting with Slavia changed. The referee will sound the whistle at 14:00 Kyiv time (EET) on February 3. The live broadcast is expected on Futbol 2 channel.