By Chris Wright
Coming into the second leg already 3-1 up on aggregate, Viktoria Plzen wafted into the Champions League group stages (where they will face Bayern Munich and Manchester City in Group D) with a 1-0 over Maribor at the Stadion Ljudski in Solvenia last night – and the Czech side’s joyous celebrations after making it through unscathed were just…well, charming.
Plzen’s coach, Pavel Vrba – who won his third consecutive “Czech Coach of the Year” award last year – also demonstrated that he could still hang despite being a few months shy of his 50th birthday, removing his shirt and pulling off a textbook gymnastic reverse tumble on the pitch to the delight of the away fans…
Flawless, but then you don’t win ‘Coach of the Year’ three times on the bounce without being able to do a bit of Grade ‘A’ tumbling when necessary!