Sparta Prague take advantage of Chelsea gaffe to troll rivals Slavia on social media

Next week, Chelsea will begin play in the Europa League quarterfinals against last season’s Czech first division runners-up, and current league leaders Slavia Prague. The first leg will be in Prague, on April 11, with the second leg to follow at the Bridge seven days (and a trip to Anfield) later.

That second leg is unfortunately undersold at the moment, with tickets having to go on general sale on Monday — a relative rare event in the Abramovich Era. Thursday nights combined with the ennui of Sarri-ball has led us to this sorry situation*.

To make matters worse, Chelsea’s official website put the wrong Prague team in the headline of their post, advertising tickets against Sparta rather than Slavia. Chelsea played Sparta during the 2012-13 Europa League-winning knockout campaign, so it’s easy to see how the mistake was made, but it was an unfortunate mistake nonetheless.

The typo has since been corrected, but the Internet never forgets.

Sparta, who have fallen on somewhat leaner times since then, took this opportunity to get one over their in-city rivals — something which they haven’t been able to do on the pitch since 2016. Sparta are by far the most successful team in Czech football history, winning 12 titles since independence in 1993 and 21 titles back in the days of Czechoslovakia, the most during that time as well. Slavia are on course to win their second in the last three years however.

Hi guys Chelsea FC, we completely understand you are confused, since we are the most famous and most successful club from Prague. But this time you play against Slavia, sorry... :(

The sad face is a fantastic touch.

Incidentally, the two rivals will play each other in-between Slavia’s two legs against Chelsea.

* There are well over 1000 season ticket seats available for the match against Burnley on Monday, the 22nd. I daresay this is unprecedented, certainly in the five-year history of the ticket exchange, but probably dating back many, many more years than that, possibly even before the Viagogo scheme was put in place in 2006.