Perhaps suffering from nerves of his own on his club debut, Slavia’s El Hadji Youssoupha Mbodji nearly made the first telling mistake.
Jostein Gundersen’s hopeful ball ought to have been easily dealt with by the Senegalese defender, but as he made a hash of his attempted clearance, Hakon Evjen nipped in and was only denied by the outstretched leg of Jindrich Stanek.
Slavia would get into the groove soon enough, though, and came close to nosing ahead through Michal Sadilek, whose piledriver from 30 yards left Nikita Khaikin rooted to the spot. Fortunately for the Bodo/Glimt stopper, his effort whistled inches over the bar.
That proved to be just a fleeting reprieve for the Norwegian outfit, though, and Slavia finally broke the deadlock on 23’.
Lukas Provod was the architect, rolling a teasing ball across the six-yard line, which Mbodji powered home at the far post.
The hosts were then adamant they should’ve had the chance to double their advantage from the penalty spot shortly before half-time, but referee Marian Barbu disagreed.
Stepan Chaloupek’s goalbound header appeared to be blocked by the arm of Haitam Aleesami, and despite a VAR monitor review, the decision stood.
Visiting boss Kjetil Knutsen evidently wasn’t happy with what he had seen in the first half and looked to his bench at half-time.
His decision to introduce Daniel Bassi at the break paid immediate dividends when he was felled in the area by Mbodji. The earlier goalscorer’s blushes were spared by Stanek, though, who dived the right way to deny Kasper Hogh from the penalty spot.
Slavia resumed their pressing game from there, and only a fine double save prevented them from doubling their advantage - Provod was the first to be denied by Khaikin, before the latter bounced back to his feet quickly to thwart Vasil Kusej too.
The hosts looked to have wrapped the game up soon after, though, and it was that man Mbodji who again sent the Fortuna Arena into raptures.
In eerily similar circumstances, it was Provod who was the provider, standing a ball up to the far post that Mbodji volleyed home.
That seemingly placed the game beyond any reasonable doubt.
Bassi had other ideas, though, striking to halve the arrears within minutes of Slavia going two goals ahead.
Then, an unlikely comeback was completed seconds before the 90-minute mark when Sondre Brunstad Fet thumped a volley in off the underside of the bar to ensure the spoils were shared in an entertaining maiden UCL main draw meeting between Czech and Norwegian sides.
Flashscore Man of the Match: El Hadji Youssoupha Mbodji (Slavia Prague)