Czech Republic looking to outperform expectations yet again at Euro 2020

Czech Republic head into the delayed Euro 2020 tournament in what should now be a familiar position for them. Written off.

Jaroslav Šilhavý’s side are in Group D alongside England, Croatia and Scotland, and have been widely tipped to finish bottom of the group.

Low expectations from further afield are nothing new for the Czechs, who face the same story at every tournament they qualify for, but their own ambitions will far exceed what is generally expected from them.

This will be the seventh European Championships since the split of Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic have qualified for all seven.

Their previous six tournaments have been mixed, to say the least. Group stage exits have occurred in 2000, 2008 and 2016, but in 1996, 2004 and 2012 the Czechs have fared better.

Euro 1996 was their first tournament as a separate entity, and their best so far, finishing as runners up to Germany in a game decided by a golden goal.

Euro 2004 was another great tournament, up until they lost to Greece in the semi-finals, decided by a silver goal.

2012 did not manage to live up to either of those tournaments, but they still proved people wrong by topping their group and were only narrowly beaten by a single goal against Portugal in the quarter-finals.

The three tournaments where the Czechs went out in the group stages were not all complete failures either. In 2000 they finished third, behind the Netherlands and France in what was a tough group. In 2008, they were in a top two spot and set to qualify with five minutes to play before a late double from Turkey turned the game on it’s head and sent Czech Republic home.

2016, however, did not go to plan for the Czechs, who lost to Spain and Turkey to finish bottom of their group on one point, having drawn with Croatia. It was the worst performance from a Czech side yet and they will be hoping to right the wrongs this time around.

When it comes to opponents, Group D is a tricky task for everyone in it. England are one of the highest-rated nations in the world, Croatia have some world class talents in their team, albeit ageing talents, while Scotland will be wanting to make their mark on the tournament with international tournaments few and far between for the Tartan Army.

While the Czech squad no longer contains names such as Nedved, Rosicky, Koller, Cech, Poborsky, Berger, or even Baros, there are still plenty of talented players in the 26-man squad.

While there might not be many household names in the side, 18 months ago Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal would have been names not known to most followers of English football, and yet both are now stars for West Ham United in the Premier League.

Both those players joined West Ham from Slavia Prague, who have five representatives of their own in the squad in David Zima, Jan Boril, Tomas Holes, Lukas Masopust and Petr Sevcik. If any of those names ring a bell, it could be because they all played a role in Slavia’s Europa League run which saw them beat Leicester City and Rangers, and draw with Arsenal at the Emirates before a collapse at the Sinobo Stadium.

Jiri Pavlenka (Werder Bremen), Pavel Kaderabek (Hoffenheim), Vladimir Darida (Hertha Berlin) and Patrik Schick (Bayer Leverkusen) all play in Germany, while there are also players based in Italy and Spain, showing that despite not being household names there is still plenty of talent in the Czech side.

If you still need convincing, a look back to October 2019 where they came from behind to beat England 2-1 in the last meeting between the sides should be all that you need. Although their last meeting with Scotland being a recent 1-0 defeat shows how inconsistent the side can be.

If the Czechs turn up and play to the best of their ability they will be confident of getting results against Croatia and Scotland, and perhaps even England given the result of the previous meeting, although their last visit to Wembley was a humiliating 5-0 defeat.

With three teams qualifying for the next round in most groups it would not take much to qualify for the next stage. Whoever makes it through will do well to make it any further than the next round however with the teams that lie ahead but if the Czechs do prove people wrong to qualify then they’ll fancy their chances of proving people wrong again in the round of 16.

Making the round of 16 should be the target for Czech Republic at this year’s tournament, and given how they did in 2016 it would mark an improvement, but whether they can manage to outperform expectations again remains to be seen.

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