Bournemouth visit Sparta Prague on six-match winning run in Europa League
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The gist
Bournemouth travel 714 miles to Sparta Prague for their first-ever meeting, on a six-match winning run.
Sparta sit 16th with four points and have won two of their last seven.
Background
Sparta Prague are a Czech club playing in the Europa League league phase; Bournemouth are an English Premier League side now managed by Marco Rose, who took over after Andoni Iraola left for Liverpool. This is the first competitive meeting between the two clubs, with no previous head-to-head record. Bournemouth arrive on a six-match winning run in which they have scored 16 goals and kept six clean sheets, including a 3-0 win over AC Milan; Sparta have won only two of their last seven games in all competitions and sit 16th in the Europa League table with four points.
How it unfolded
- Sep 16, 2026Sparta Prague beat Ararat-Armenia 4-1 in their Europa League league-phase opener, their only win of the phase.
- Sep 17, 2026Bournemouth beat Real Sociedad 2-1 in their opening European fixture.
- Oct 15, 2026Bournemouth beat Sturm Graz 3-0 on Europa League matchday two.
- Oct 22, 2026Bournemouth beat AC Milan 3-0 at the Vitality Stadium, with Justin Kluivert and Marcus Tavernier scoring penalties and Amine Adli adding a third from a free kick.
- Oct 25, 2026Jonatan Braut Brunes ended a 14-game goal drought with four goals in Sparta's 5-1 win over Slovacko.
- Nov 1, 2026Sparta drew 0-0 at Bohemians 1905, whose player was sent off in the 74th minute; Bournemouth beat Leeds United 2-0 to extend their winning run to six games.
- Nov 5, 2026Sparta Prague vs Bournemouth, Europa League league phase matchday 4, at the epet ARENA (Letna Stadium), Prague, kick-off 17:45 UK time (18:45 local), live on TNT Sports 2.
Key terms
- Europa League
- An annual European club football competition organized by UEFA, the second tier below the Champions League.
- league phase
- The opening stage of a UEFA club competition in which all teams play a single league table to decide who advances.
- clean sheets
- In team sports, a game in which the losing team fails to score, often credited to effective defense.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- WhoScored, TNT Sports and talkSPORT all predict Bournemouth wins, by 0-2, 0-3 and 0-2 respectively, with Bournemouth priced at 1/2 as clear favourites.
- Caution
- Sparta player Patrik Vydra admitted after the Bohemians draw that Sparta must start scoring.
Still unverified
Sparta's John Mercado is described as likely to be missing with an injury and will be assessed; Matej Rynes, Adam Karabec and Adam Sevinsky are listed as out by one source. Bournemouth's Veljko Milosavljevic is a doubt, and Alex Scott is nearing a return but unlikely to be risked. Predicted line-ups differ between sources, including in goal for Bournemouth (Petrovic in one, Di Gregorio in others).