Euro 2012 Spotlight - Czech Republic - Football Forums at footytube.com

FIFA World Ranking
26

Tournament Odds
65/1

Key Players
Petr Čech – GK – 89 Caps, 0 Goals
Tomáš Rosický – MF - 85 Caps, 20 Goals
Milan Baros – ST – 87 Caps, 40 Goals

Team Rating

Group
A: Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Russia

Notable Facts

Lowest scoring team to qualify with 12 goals.

Reached the Final in 1996.

Front man Milan Baros won the golden Boot at Euro 2004.

Czech Republic’s Chances
The Czech’s didn’t begin their football history in the guise of a republic until 1992 playing their first international against Turkey in 1994. As Czechoslovakia they enjoyed significant early successes in the history of the European Championships, winning the tournament in 1978.

In more modern times they have only qualified for one World Cup (in 2006) where they were dumped out at the group stage after loosing 2-0 to an impressive Ghana team. They have however been solid contenders all along in the European Championships having qualified for all 5 tournaments since their formation coming a close second in 1996 losing out to Germany in extra time via a 'Golden Goal'. 2004 was the last time they made it through the group phase securing top spot by winning all of thier matches including those against Germany and the Netherlands going on to the semi finals and losing out to eventual winners Greece.

They have qualified for Euro 2012 through the play-off by finishing second to Spain in their group (loosing 2-1 and 2-0 to the Spaniards), they won their play-off games 1-0 and 2-0 against an under rated Montenegro side.

The stand out stats for them though is the fact that with just 12 goals in 10 games they were the lowest scoring team to qualify for the tournament and teams like Scotland, Norway and Lithuania can count themselves amongst those that avoided defeat against the Czechs.

Like many others in Group A the Czech squad is ageing and their stars of yester-year are now just a little past their prime but they do have the added advantage that many still play football with top European clubs. It is perhapas most notable that their leading scorer during qualifying was Defender Michal Kadlec with 4 goals, with better known names such as Tomáš Rosický and Milan Baros (who won the Golden Boot at Euro 2004) adding just 1 goal between them despite playing in most of the qualifying games. Even their manager Vladimir Smicer has admitted “I can't see we will be an offensive team because we don't have too many offensive players at the moment”.

The Czech’s lack a real creative spark in the middle and unless one of their star names steps up you can expect little drama and few goals as they limp out at the group stage.

Though with the teams matched closely in Group A and most of them lacking real fire power the qualifiers could be decided by a single match winning goal across their 3 games and that makes the playing field open for a possible Czech qualification if they can find a couple of goals from somewhere.

“Araz Index”
Chance of qualifying from Group: 40%
Predicted Knock Out Stage: Group Phase

“Matt Index”
Chance of qualifying from Group: 30%
Predicted Knock Out Stage: Group Phase

Matt's Possibly True Trivia

During the squads downtime they love nothing more than making lace crop bralettes

In a recent study it was found that the Czech team were able to collectively hold their breath longer than any other side in this years Euros (2nd France, 3rd Ukraine)

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