"REALITY CZECH" Daily Mirror

Czech Republic Team

England Team

For the first time in ten years England lost a qualifying match in a major tournament.  To go that long undefeated is rightly applauded, but the manner in which the run came to an end against the Czech Republic will be a worry for manager Gareth Southgate.

The match certainly couldn’t have started any better for England as they took the lead after just five minutes play.  A great flick by Harry Kane sent Raheem Sterling racing into the penalty area to the left of goal.  His quick turn and check back completely deceived Lukas Masopust, who scythed the Manchester City winger down for what was an obvious penalty.  Kane slotted home the spot-kick and it all looked good for England.  Maybe going ahead so early proved their undoing as it was at that point that the game changed.  For the remainder of the half there was a lackadaisical attitude from the England players, and also a certain amount of mis-placed arrogance.  The Czechs were having none of that, and they really set about England to make them pay for thinking they had the match won.

It was soon obvious that England were not going to have things all their own way as the Czechs hustled and harried and pressed them into errors.  A corner to the home side in the ninth minute led to an immediate equaliser.  Michael Keane failed to clear from Ondrej Celustka, who deflected the ball to the completely unmarked Jakub Brabek, who bundled the ball home off his knee/shin.  England are not dealing with set pieces at all recently, and it is something Southgate must address.  The Czechs were lifted by this goal, and with their fans creating a lot of noise, they worked their socks off.  For a while England were rattled.  Jordan Henderson and Declan Rice were both guilty of sloppy passes giving away possession, but they were not alone as too many players looked woefully out of sorts, and sloppy was the right word to describe this performance.

England’s midfield, with Mason Mount making an inauspicious full debut, looked disjointed and unbalanced and both full-backs were struggling to know quite what their role was to be.  In fact, the whole team seemed to be struggling with the set up at times.  Almost immediately after their goal the Czechs went very close again, this time with Tomas Soucek heading down to Patrik Schick, only for the forward to screw his shot over Jordan Pickford’s crossbar.  The home side continued to press and they had several worthy goal attempts in the first-half.  Pickford had to be alert on a number of occasions, and made several good saves, especially from Vladimir Coufal’s cross-shot after Danny Rose went down under a challenge, claiming a foul, which the referee didn’t give.  Rose struggled more and more as the game went on, and he was booked, which put him out of the Bulgaria game.  

Schick came close at the far post and all this in the first 15 minutes.  The remainder of the half saw England re-grouping slightly, but they were not causing the home defenders any real problems, indeed, goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik never had a save to make of any note.  Pickford, meanwhile had to be very alert as the mistakes continued from the players in front of him.  England were lucky to still be level at the break.

After a re-think at half-time Southgate rallied his troops, but not a lot changed as the Czech Republic were refusing to let go of the momentum they had.  On 59 minutes a fine curling shot from Alex Kral was well tipped over by Pickford and three minutes later a lovely cross from the left by Sterling, needed a touch from Kane, but he missed the ball and the chance was lost.  Sterling had at least been the one England player to show some of his good club form.  Most of the rest of England’s team also showed their club form, the trouble was not many of them have any good form at the moment.

Southgate brought on Ross Barclay and Marcus Rashford for the anonymous Mount and Jadon Sancho, but that made no difference as England laboured on.

Kral went close again in the 80th minute when the best move of the match, a series of one-touch passing, left him with a clear shot at goal.  He went for the near post but Pickford once again made a good save.  Five minutes later though, there was nothing the goalkeeper could do with what proved to be the winning goal.  Rose was easily beaten in the air, after a poor clearance by Pickford, and the ball broke down the right for Masopust to have a free run.  Harry Maguire failed to close him down and he had the easiest of pull-backs for unmarked substitute Zdenek Ondrasek to score with a good finish.  It was a deserved goal for the Czechs, but oh dear, England’s defending was awful, and their marking non-existent.

The crowd went wild with delight, understandably perhaps, as this had been the best Czech performance for a number of years.  England, meanwhile need to re-evaluate their game as this one was reminiscent of the pre-Southgate era and a big step backwards from the last World Cup.  England are still in charge of the group, and in a good position, but they will need to bounce back quickly from this in Bulgaria, in their next match.  We shall see.
   

Source Notes