What did the Czechs and Belarusians show? Darida’s successor shone, one-legged Jankto slowed down

The Czech national team managed to beat Belarus 1:0 in the qualification match on Thursday. It was not an ideal performance from the point of view of a Czech fan, what did it suggest for the next matches?

Jankt lacks versatility

Jakub Jankto is a long-time stalwart of the national team. He always fights, creates, tries his best, but it is very obvious that his left foot is his stronger leg.

On Thursday, he slowed down a promising action several times by looking for an alternative with his left foot instead of shooting or centering with his right. In the second half, he also failed with his head when a nice centre by Matej Vydra was not buried in the net.

Darid’s successor found

Due to the wide substitution, it was highly probable that Antonín Barák would take the place of the most offensive midfielder. He had a good summer Euro, especially in the match against the Netherlands he was unstoppable.

The Verona midfielder was also active in the qualifying match against Belarus, he scored several interesting passes to the wing areas and sent two shots. In the 34th minute, he found the centre of Adam Hložek and scored the only goal to decide the victory.

In the second half his performance (as well as the rest of the team) went down a bit, yet he was clearly one of the best on the field. On fast breaks he tried to speed up the game with a perpendicular pass, and after Vydra came in with a pass behind the defence.

Blind centres are not the solution

Martin Dolezal’s task at the tip of the attack was to play as many aerial duels as possible, but this was a difficult mission against the carefully defending Belarusians. There were a lot of centres flying into the box, especially from the right side, but the burly midfielder was not up to the task.

Considering the quality of the opponent, we expected more support from Tomáš Souček, who rarely went into the penalty area. His strength in the air seemed to stay in London, with Soucek constantly moving close to Alex King.

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