Despite Slavia being mere bit players, it was the visitors who had the brighter start, with Lukas Provod seeing a shot blocked by David Luiz, before delivering a cross that Erik Prekop latched onto as he forced Jay Gorter into the game’s first save. Even so, the hosts went ahead in the 17th minute, when Vlad Dragomir capitalized on a complete lack of pressure from Slavia to smash a sensational strike from range into the top corner.
Youssoupha Mbodji then made a mess of his header from David Doudera’s cross, before Muhammed Cham missed the target under pressure from Gorter following a mix-up between Kostas Pileas and Pepe. Albert Celades’ side eventually settled again following those scares, though Doudera continued to provide threatening crosses at the other end.
And after Michal Sadilek had headed wide from one, Stepan Chaloupek reached another ahead of Domingos Quina to turn home an equalizer before the break.
Pafos struck back in the 53rd minute to reignite their play-off hopes, as Bruno Felipe let off an instinctive finish despite being surrounded by red and white shirts to leave Jindrich Stanek rooted. However, the visitors’ afternoon got even worse before the hour mark, as Jan Boril was sent off for denying Jaja a goalscoring opportunity just four minutes after the defender’s introduction, although the deficit remained at one goal with Luiz’s free-kick being saved.
Stanek denied Dragomir’s attempted dink before Douděra deflected Jaja’s shot wide, but Pafos kept pushing with Mislav Orsic hitting the post then guiding a header onto the roof of the net. The Croatian then jinked his way into the box and laid the ball off for Anderson Silva to effortlessly stroke it inside the post in the 84th minute.
It soon became a matter of getting the goals needed for Pafos to chase a play-off spot, and an Orsic cross sailed past everybody and bounced past Stanek just three minutes later.
Orsic then squared for Landry Dimata to tap the ball in but had been offside, as the Cypriot side were eliminated on goal difference, while Slavia Prague’s third consecutive UCL defeat left them 34th in the final table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mislav Orsic (Pafos)
