For Czech club Slavia Prague, playing against Barcelona in a Champions League draw was already unforgettable. That the match was played at Nou Camp, the visitors were beyond overwhelmed. However, when the game ended in a stalemate, the Czech champions were shocked by the cold treatment from Barca.
The Spanish giants faced a Prague side that seemed to be an easy conquer. Instead, the visiting club played with "fluency and urgency," Goal.com reported. Prague failed to score a win, but the team did the next best thing - they managed a draw at 0-0.
Stunned, perhaps, by the result, the home stars walked off the pitch, not minding anyone. Most of Barcelona, including Lionel Messi, went straight to the dressing room and waived off the usual shaking of hands and exchanges of jersey with the opposing team, the report said.
What happened disappointed Prague, whose roster look up to their Barca counterparts as football gods. According to Prague keeper Ondrej Kolar, the behavior displayed by the Barca players post-match dismayed him and his teammates.
"It was sad. We were all looking forward to meeting these big players, we wanted to swap jerseys after the match, but they didn't behave very well," Kolar was reported as saying.
"Messi and the others just left - some of them didn't even shake our hands," he added.
The Czech star, however, can only say good words for Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, who he recalled "waited for me after the match," to say his praises.
"He stopped me and said he hadn't seen such a good goalkeeping performance for a long time and that it was a pleasure to watch me play well with my feet ... To hear such praise from such a good goalkeeper, I had goosebumps. It was an amazing experience," Kolar said of his Barca counterpart.
Notwithstanding the not-so-good encounter with Messi and other Barcelona stars, Kolar admitted that his visit to Nou Camp regardless of the outcome of the game.
"I live for football, playing at stadiums like this is the greatest thing for me. We were all looking forward to it - it's every boy's dream. And to have such a good game here? Amazing. To keep a team like this from scoring doesn't happen to everyone," the Prague goalkeeper said.
For his part, Ernesto Valverde has admitted that Barca fell short of expectations, adding "we couldn't convert the dominance we had into opportunities."
"The truth is that we have not been right (when it has come to converting the) clear chances that we have had. They, without creating clear opportunities, caused danger when they stole the ball from us because they came out very fast against us (on the counter-attack)," the Barca manager said, and per the report from The Daily Mirror.
