Plzeň U20 made light work of Kladno U20 on Thursday, running out 7-1 winners in the ELŽ. The visitors carved them open at will, turning a contest many expected to be tighter into a one-sided affair. Kladno had arrived with nothing to show from two opening fixtures, while Plzeň carried the weight of a win and a loss.
By then, the standings told a familiar story. Kladno sit fifteenth with zero points after two defeats, while Plzeň occupy eleventh despite also being on zero points. The gap between them is not in the table so much as in the quality of football on show.
Kladno's recent results paint a picture of teams that have been cut open at will. They lost 5-3 to Brno, 4-3 to Poruba, and 8-3 to Sparta before that solitary 2-1 victory over Chomutov. Plzeň have been more erratic - heavy wins against Jihlava and Karlovy Vary, but also defeats to České Budějovice and Karlovy Vary.
And here's the thing - we had called this one ahead of kickoff. Our prediction backed Plzeň away at 89 per cent confidence, and they delivered when it mattered. Not every favourite pulls away like this, but Plzeň's attacking resources proved too much for a Kladno side that ran out of legs.
The result keeps Plzeň moving forward while Kladno's campaign continues to stumble. Seven goals conceded in ninety minutes is not something you recover from easily. The visitors now hold themselves above the mid-table pack, while Kladno remain rooted to the bottom.