Match Summary

England Team

Czech Republic Team

This warm up match for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers again highlighted to manager Fabio Capello just what a huge task he has in front of him.  England were woeful on the night and only a late equaliser gave them an undeserved draw.

The Czech side were far superior in almost every aspect of the play as they passed the ball around Wembley with consummate ease.  They played a simple counter-attacking game and, with England all over the place at times, they often stretched the home defence.  In the 22^nd minute the Czechs finally gained their reward.  Play was cleverly switched from left wing to the right wing leaving the England midfield totally exposed.  When the ball came back to the left again the Czechs played in Radek Sirl who gained possession and went round Wes Brown far too easily for the manager’s liking.  Sirl then pulled the ball back and in came former Liverpool and Aston Villa player Milan Baros to fire in a shot, which was deflected past David James by Ashley Cole.

England did have some chances and Jermaine Defoe, who worked hard, wasted two good opportunities with less than convincing attempts.  Wayne Rooney, too, was also out of sorts and his best chance came when he headed a David Beckham cross straight at Peter Cech in the visitor’s goal.  Steven Gerrard forced Cech into a scrambling save as England tried hard for an equaliser.  But just as it seemed they would go in a half-time with a one goal deficit they finally found a leveller.  A Beckham corner was met by Brown, and the full-back scored his first goal for England with a strong header.

Three minutes after the restart all of England’s efforts to get back into the game were thrown away when the Czech Republic regained the lead.  Gareth Barry fouled Jan Polak and Marek Jankulovski curled a superb free-kick into the top corner with James groping.  Capello had brought on three new players as substitutes with Emile Heskey, Joe Cole and Jonathan Woodgate being given run outs.  But it was the Czechs who should have scored again following some farcical play by the England defenders looking for an offside decision that wasn’t there.  Vaclav Sverkos burst through with the ball, went around James and looked a certain scorer until his shot went wide.  That was a real let-off for England but their play did not really improve despite several more team changes.

An England defeat looked certain but just as they had equalised for the first time at the end of the first half they did it again right at the end of the match.  A corner from the right was not cleared properly and as the ball bounced around in front of the Czech goal, Joe Cole managed to toe poke the ball beyond his Chelsea teammate Cech and England salvaged an undeserved draw.  It was not a convincing performance though and the crowd showed their displeasure at the end of the game.  Mr Capello has a lot to do.

Source Notes

BBC Sport
TheFA.com
SkySports.com
Fotbal.cz
Marcel Hoefsmit, Netherlands
Official Matchday Programme
Mike Payne - football historian and contributor
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CG