Who are you? Scotland defeat Czechia’s replacement team

Scotland came from behind to defeat Czechia 2-1 in Olomouc in their UEFA Nations League qualifier.

Three days before the match Czechia defeated neighbours Slovakia 3-1 and were strong favourites to secure another win against Scotland, who could only manage a draw at home to Israel the same night. However, shortly after the matches finished, events took a surreal twist when the Czech FA announced that they would not play their next qualifier against Scotland due to one of their backroom staff testing positive for the Coronavirus.

The Scottish FA flagged the surprising announcement to UEFA who insisted to the Czech FA that they must find a replacement team and coaching staff to fulfill the fixture or forfeit the match.

So just two days before the match the Czechs were forced to pull together a brand new squad of 24 players, only two of whom had ever played for their national team including one who was brought out of international retirement to play!

One Scottish fan took to social media to provide his interpretation of events.

The bookies however had Scotland as strong favourites with odds of 4-9 to secure an away win.

Despite this, the inexperienced Czechs took the lead after just 11 minutes through a goal from Jakub Pešek.

Scotland equalised after 27 minutes through Lyndon Dykes’ first goal for his country in only his second game.

Dykes equalises for Scotland

Scotland were then awarded a penalty shortly after half time when captain Andy Robertson was brought down in the box. Ryan Christie stepped up to convert his second penalty in two games to give Scotland a 2-1 lead.

Christie converts penalty to make it 2-1 for Scotland

The victory leaves Scotland top of the group with four points after two games, followed by Czechia on three points, Israel on two and Slovakia on one point.

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