Czech Republic

The Czech Republic narrowly edged out Scotland to grab an all important play-off match against Montenegro. The tie was always going to provide Euro 2012 with a potent attacking force, the Czech Republic only scored 12 goals in qualifying, Montenegro a dismal 7. Thankfully goals from Pilar, Sivok and Jiracek, none of whom are strikers, saw the Czechs on their way to Poland. Luckily, the Czech Republic landed a spot in what is the undoubtedly the easiest group in Euro 2012 Group A. Poland qualified by right as they are co-staging the tournament, whereas Greece and Russia made it through qualifying. Although both are very adept football nations, neither are considered unbeatable. Yet, if history is to go by then this should be another great year for Czech football. In Euro 96 they finished second, Euro 2000 10th, Euro 2004 back up to 3rd, Euro 2008 back down to 11th, meaning that this year’s finish of 4th would do nicely for symmetrical reasons. Realistically though this should be a tough group to call. The Czech’s do have a small number of Europe’s elite in their squad. Petr Cech remains one of the best keepers in the world whilst Czech captain Tomas Rosicky is just finding form again for Arsenal after some poor seasons at the London club. Between them they have 174 caps and their experience will be vital in guiding a team that has had little exposure to high level tournaments. Out of the four defenders who started both play-off games against Montenegro, Tomas Sivok is the eldest at 28 and Michal Kadlec the highest capped at 33, exemplifying the demand on Cech to pass guidance onto his players. The Czech Republic’s head coach Michael Bilek tends to change the formation of the team depending on their opponent. He has started with both 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 formations depending, obviously, on whether they want to defend or attack. However, recently a standard 4-4-2 formation has been reverted to. The Peval Nedved lookalike Jarsoslav Plasil is a regular in midfield alongside Rosicky. The attacking left winger helped Monaco reach the Champions League final in 2004 and will be looked upon along with Vaclav Pilar to provide service from the wide areas. Leading the search for goals could be ex-Liverpool, Aston Villa and Portsmouth striker Milan Baros. Despite Baros’ lack of goals in qualifying, he scored once against Liechtenstein, the Czech has notched up an impressive 40 goals from 86 international matches. His lack of recent goals could hamper his chances of making the starting 11 with Jan Rezek, Tomas Pekhart and David Lafata all attempting to occupy the forward roles, albeit with only 9 international goals between them. The lack of goalscorers in the squad mean that the Czech Republic have little chance of winning the tournament. However, Michael Bilek’s men could still progress out of Group A provided their defence remains strong. A 4th place finish though, may be optimistic.