Czech Republic is without a World Cup! How does the public react to the cruel loss to the Swedes?

The Czech national team travelled to Sweden with a considerably weakened squad. The football community had the biggest wrinkles on their foreheads from the absence of Patrik Schick and Vladimir Coufal. On the other hand, the Swedes had to do without the legendary Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was suspended for yellow cards. The Czechs put in a decent performance and certainly didn’t concede anything, but the Swedes are the ones who are happy to advance to the final of the barrage.

The Czech team went into the game as the underdogs, but it didn’t look bad for the Czechs on the pitch for most of the game. Coach Jaroslav Šilhavý prepared the team in a very short time to a 3-5-2 formation and in certain passages we even outplayed the Northmen.

In the opening act of the match we even took the lead after a goal by Jan Kuchta, who in his typical way delivered the ball into the net. But the English referee Michael Oliver was against it and disallowed the goal (probably because of a (non)foul by Jakub Brabec).

In the regular time some players gave really above-standard performances, namely central defender Jakub Brabec, captain Tomáš Souček, creative offensive midfielder Antonín Barák and in the first 45 minutes the attacking duo Adam Hložek and Jan Kuchta played well.

Anyway, the game confirmed the fact that we lacked top quality on the bench. With the passing minutes we were forced to make substitutions and eventually we started to suffer. Of the substitutes, Pekhart and Matějů failed to play well against Sweden.

Substitute Milan Havel could even have been the Czech hero in stoppage time, but he missed the Swedish goal from a good position.

The Swedes decided the end of the Czech hopes for promotion in the 110th minute. Robin Quaison scored after a good combination through the middle of the field.

Public reaction

Many fans, experts and journalists commented on the elimination of the Czech national football team on social media. Despite the significant absences and the good performance of our team, there were many critics of coach Jaroslav Šilhavy.

“The Swedes managed 1 action. Nice. A good one (to the final of the barrage). The Czechs didn’t allow them much more, unfortunately they didn’t use their game activity to score goals. And when they did, the referee disallowed the goal. The substitutions (necessary) diluted the Czech quality and activity. It is a pity that Lingr did not play more.”

“I wondered why Šilhavy didn’t substitute for so long. I don’t wonder anymore. After the substitution, it was a total bust.”

Source:: ČT Sport, Luděk Mádl, Karel Häring, tolsimir, Dan Peterka