From eighth place to the title! The fantastic campaign of Nitra has a Czech mark on the substitutes and in the goal

Sixty-one-year-old Stavjaňa is a legend in Nitra. The former excellent defender and two-time world champion has been coaching it for ten seasons, he led the team to the first title in 2016. He returned during the last season, when he pulled the fumbling team from the fight for survival to the quarter-finals. And this year he shot it even higher, all the way to the top of the Slovak extra league.

“It was a special season. They underestimated us rightly. The regular season was shaky, but then we learned how to play the playoffs. We pulled together as a team and that made the decision,” assessed Stavjaňa

Goalkeeper Libor Kašík also played a significant role in Nitra’s title campaign. The 32-year-old Zlín student did not perform so brilliantly in the regular season, but in the playoffs he had a success rate of 96 percent.

Nitra first defeated Trenčín 3:2 in the preliminary round and entered the main stage of the playoffs as the worst ranked team. However, they defeated the winners of the regular season Poprad 4:2 in the match and eliminated Michalovce by the same ratio in the semi-finals. She then turned the final into a clear affair and did not let Spišská Nové Ves have a single duel. The move from eighth place to the title was successful in the Slovak Extraliga for the first time ever.

In the final match, the guests managed to equalize without a goalkeeper, but after two minutes of overtime striker Miloš Bubela decided the victory 2:1 and the title of Nitra. Kašík made 23 saves in the win. For the third time in his career, the most useful player in the playoffs was extřinec forward Samuel Buček, who recorded 24 points in 21 duels.

Třinec native striker Filip Bajtek, who has Czech and Slovak citizenship, also celebrated in Nitra’s squad. Czech defender Jakub Kubeš also started the season in the championship team, but he transferred to Prostějov in November.

The coach of the defeated Spišská Nová Ves Vlastimil Wojnar will work in Vítkovice as an assistant from the new season.