Fantastic draw for ex-Chelsea Miroslav Stoch
17.3.2019, Redakce
Slavia will face Chelsea FC in the UEFA Europa League quarter-final. This draw is especially interesting for Miroslav Stoch, who spent several years in Chelsea youth academy and in the first team of The Blues.
“For me personally it’s fantastic. Finally, my guess for the draw became reality and I am glad it will be Chelsea this time. It will be extremely difficult for us, but on the other side, we were drawn against top club, almost the same as if we were in the Champions League. I am big fan of Chelsea since I was young, I follow all their games. The tie will be extremely hard, but I believe it will be good football to watch,” Stoch said after the draw.“No doubts that Chelsea are favourites, but it was the same when we were facing Sevilla. There can be ups and downs in the games ang I strongly believe that we will make their way into the semi-final more complicated. Well, you never know. I hope we will have the luck again and that we can achieve good results,” Slavia midfielder added.
“There are fantastic names in Chelsea squad. It’s enough just to say Hazard. Or Willian. I think there is a world class player on every position in their line-up,” Stoch concluded.
Miroslav Stoch joined youth academy of Chelsea in 2006 from Slovak club Nitra. In 2006/07 he finished the season as top scorer of Chelsea U-18 despite playing on the wing. He made his first-team debut on 30 November 2008 against Arsenal. In 2009, Twente signed him on loan from Chelsea and Stoch scored 10 goals in 32 games there (Twente became Dutch champions in 2009/10 season). In 2010, the Slovak midfielder joined Fenerbahce and helped them to win the 2010/11 Turkish Süper Lig. Stoch also won the FIFA Puskás Award for the Goal of the year in2012.
Throuhg PAOK, Al Ain and Bursaspor, Stoch eventually moved to Slavia in August 2017. He won the Czech MOL Cup with the red-whites in 2018 and became Player of the Season according to fans’ voting. He is currently the top scorer of Slavia in 2018/19 Czech league with 11 goals.
