The European Small-Sided Football Championships are coming up. Czech national team defends title

The Košice Steel Arena with a capacity of 8,350 seats has hosted the Ice Hockey World Championships twice and from 4 to 11 June 2022 it will become the venue for the European Small-Sided Football Championship.

The gold medals from the last continental championship in Kiev, Ukraine, will be defended by the Czech national team, which will face Serbia, Moldova and France in the Group E.

The teams in first and second place from the six groups and the four best teams from the third place will advance to the eight-finals.

“I have respect for the group, it will not be easy. Moldova is not bad. We have Serbia for maybe the third time in the regular group and they are an unpleasant opponent, they are mostly scrappy, duelling types. We beat France 7-0 at the 2017 World Cup in Tunisia, but that was a stroke of luck for us, not bad at all,” commented Brno quarterback Patrik Levcik, the world and European champion in small-sided football.

Among the 15 nominated players in the Czech national team are seven defending European champions from Kiev. Six players will be sent by Brno, five by Staropramen Prague, Most, Blanensko, Ostrava and Pardubice have one representative each.

“We bet on experience, because the sharp action is often about mental resilience, we took that into account. We were also guided by the positions, so that we could have substitutability, we can’t take ten forwards and one defender. Of course, we would have liked to take more guys, but unfortunately we can’t, the nomination is reduced,” said Czech coach Stanislav Bejda.

The national team will meet on 1 June at the preparatory camp in Cesky Dub, from where it will move straight to Košice. All matches of the Czech team will be broadcast by Czech Television.

Czech nomination for the European Championships in Košice

Goalkeepers: Ondřej Bíro (Most), Dominik Kunický (Brno)
Field players: Patrik Levčík, David Presl, Bohumír Doubravský, Tomáš Pospiš, David Macko (all Brno), Stanislav Mařík, František Hakl, Tomáš Jelínek, Jiří Sodoma, Miroslav Verner (all Staropramen Praha), Ondřej Paděra (Blanensko), Ondřej Moučka (Baník Ostrava), Jan Rosůlek (Pardubice)

Czech matches in Group E::

4. june, 21.30:: Czech Republic – France
5. june, 17.00:: Czech Republic – Moldova
6. june, 15.45:: Czech Republic – Serbia

Composition of the core groups of the European Championship in Košice 2022

Group A:: Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, Poland
Group B: Romania, Spain, Albania, Azerbaijan
Group C: Montenegro, Bulgaria, Austria, Georgia
Group D:: Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey, Portugal
Group E: Czech Republic, Serbia, Moldova, France
Group F:: Kazakhstan, England, Israel, Greece

Source: Little Football, Author: Jaroslav Kára