Czech national team knocked out England, plans to take advantage of Romanian fear in quarterfinals

They’re already in the top eight, but of course they want to go much further. The Czech national football team defeated England 1-0 in the eighth round of the European Championships and will play Romania for a place in the top four. The duel between the two most successful teams in the history of small-sided football starts at the Steel Arena in Košice on Thursday at 10 pm.

A single goal from Brno forward Tomáš Pospiš in the 20th minute decided the progression over England. “I think we were better, we scored one more goal, so I guess so,” smiled Czech defender František Hakl.

“The English are showing more quality every year, at the last championship in Kiev we beat them 5:0 in the semi-final, now we won 1:0 with scratched ears. Thank God it was 1:0 and not 1:1, towards the end the English pressed, they had some chances,” Hakl admitted.

The Czech team showed a responsible defensive performance. “The boys followed the tactical instructions in most of the game, there was active attacking without the ball, which is what we wanted, and the English couldn’t cope with it. In the second half we dropped that a little bit, but the responsibility and the players’ desire won out again and carried us on, although I think we could have solved some more situations to be a little bit calmer.

If we would have converted something, then we would have scored two or three more goals, unfortunately it didn’t happen, so it resulted in a five-minute nervous moment at the end, which we thank God we survived,” said Czech coach Stanislav Bejda.

His charges ticked off their first opponent in their quest to defend the European title. “It definitely took a bit out of us, this is how we advanced to the World Championships, when we got back into the top eight in Europe. This was the first base, now we have two more to go,” the Czech coach pointed out.

After a bad last group match in which the national team lost to Serbia 1:4, the Czech players have increased their confidence. “The game against Serbia was not a good one, it was not a good game. Now we have picked ourselves up mainly by the result, not so much by the game. Anything can happen in the knockout round, it’s about one goal, we score one, then another and hopefully we will advance to the semi-finals,” said Hakl.

The Romanians will be a much tougher opponent than England, the five-time European champions overcame Portugal 7-0 in the eighth round. The Czechs faced them in the final of the last European Championship in 2018 in Kiev, Ukraine, where they won 4-1.

“The Romanians are not afraid of anyone else but us, this is our huge advantage and we have to get it right, find weapons that can work on them to be successful. They are the team that is showing the best game here and are probably the furthest away at the moment, but we will do our best to make sure that the fear they have of us will be there next year,” Bejda said.

England – Czech Republic 0::1 (0::1)
Goal:: 20. Pospiš. Penalties:: 14. Collier, 16. Long – 29. Mařík. Collier (England).
England::: Al-Droubi (Bartlett) – Wybrow, Gilmaney, Isaac, Collier, Belaid – Long, Cable, Morgan-Griffiths, Akinola, Konadu.
Czech Republic:: Kunický (Zrzavý) – Hakl, Sodoma, Verner, Mařík, Paděra – Levčík, Macko, Jelínek, Doubravský, Pospiš – Presl, Rosůlek, Novotný.

Thursday’s quarterfinals::
17.00:: Hungary – Kazakhstan
18.30:: France – Bulgaria
20.15:: Slovakia – Azerbaijan
22.00:: Romania – Czech Republic

Source:: Small Football