The national team was founded in 1901, existing under the previously mentioned names before the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Their first international competition as the Czech Republic was the UEFA Euro 1996, where they finished runners-up, and they have taken part in every European Championship since. Following the separation, however, they have only featured in one FIFA World Cup, the 2006 tournament, where they were eliminated in the first round of the competition.
When Czechoslovakia split and reformed into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Czech Republic national team was formed, and they played their first friendly match away to Turkey, winning 4–1, on 23 February 1994. The newly formed team played their first home game in Ostrava, against Lithuania, in which they registered their first home win, a 5–3 victory.
Their first competitive match was part of the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying campaign, in which they defeated Malta 6–1 in Ostrava. During the campaign, the Czech Republic registered six wins, three draws, and an embarrassing defeat against Luxembourg, finishing their qualifying Group 5 in first place, above favourites the Netherlands. In the final tournament, hosted by England, the Czechs progressed from the group stage, despite a 2–0 opening game defeat to Germany. They continued their good form, and progressed to the UEFA Euro 1996final, where they lost 2–1 to the Germans at Wembley Stadium.
Given their success at Euro 1996, the Czechs were expected to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. They finished third in their qualifying group, however, behind Spain and Yugoslavia, and subsequently missed the tournament.
The 2000s
The Czech Republic qualified for Euro 2000, winning all ten of their group games and conceding just five goals.[5] In the finals the team were drawn in Group D, alongside 1998 FIFA World Cup winners France, co-hosts the Netherlands and UEFA Euro 1992 winners Denmark. This was considered to be the most difficult group to advance from in the tournament.[6] The team were unlucky in the first match against the Netherlands as they hit the woodwork multiple times before losing 1–0 to a last-minute penalty.[7] The Czechs lost their second match against eventual champions France 2–1 which eliminated them from advancing to the knockout round. Czech Republic managed a 2–0 win against Denmark in their final game courtesy of two goals from Vladimír Šmicer.[7]
Once again, the Czech Republic failed to qualify for the World Cup, this time finishing second in their group, behind Denmark, and then being beaten 1–0 in both legs by Belgium in the UEFA play-offs for a place in the finals.
After the disappointment of the play-off defeat to Belgium, however, the fortunes of the national team began to change significantly with a settled team of star players at top European clubs, such as Pavel Nedvěd, Jan Koller, Tomáš Rosický, Milan Baroš, Marek Jankulovski and Tomáš Galásek together with the emergence of highly rated young goalkeeper Petr Čech. The team were unbeaten in 2002 and 2003, scoring 53 goals in 19 games and easily qualifying for Euro 2004 in the process. The Czech Republic went on a 20-game unbeaten streak, finally ended in Dublin on 31 March 2004 in a friendly match against the Republic of Ireland.[8] The Czechs entered the Euro finals in Group D, dubbed the tournament's Group of Death alongside the Netherlands, Germany and Latvia.[9] Despite going behind in all three group games, the team won them all. This included trailing 2–0 to the Netherlands in a classic 3–2 win and beating Germany in the final match with a much weakened team having already qualified.[10] The Czechs convincingly beat Denmark in the quarter-finals meaning a semi-final against Greece awaited them. The Czech Republic went into the semi-final against Greece as favourites and Tomáš Rosický hit the bar after just two minutes, Jan Koller had shots saved by the Greek goalkeeper and Pavel Nedvěd left the pitch injured in the end of the first half. It was not to be as the 90 minutes finished goalless and Greece won the game in the last minute of the first half of extra-time with a silver goal.[11] Greece would go on to win the tournament.
The Czech Republic recorded their record win during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA), thrashing Andorra 8–1 in a qualification match in Liberec. In the same match, Jan Koller became the all-time top scorer for the national team with his 35th international goal.[12] At the end of the campaign, after finishing in second place in Group 1 then defeating Norway in a playoff, the Czechs qualified for their first FIFA World Cup.[13] The team was boosted prior to the play-off matches by the return of Pavel Nedvěd,[14] who had initially retired from international football after Euro 2004. The squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany included 18 of the Euro 2004 team which reached the semi-finals. With the team ranked second in the world,[15] the Czechs were expected to do well. They started the tournament in fine form with a 3–0 win over the United States. During the game, however, Jan Koller was forced to leave with a hamstring injury,[16] putting him out of the tournament. In the next game, with the absent Koller and Milan Baroš still recovering from injury, the team suffered a shock loss, having Tomáš Ujfaluši sent off and ultimately losing 2–0 to Ghana.[15] Baroš returned for the final game against Italy which the Czechs had to win to progress. Once again, however, the team were reduced to ten men as Jan Polák was dismissed before half-time for two bookable offences.[16] Italy went on to win 2–0. Pavel Nedvěd, Karel Poborský and Vratislav Lokvenc retired from the national team after this tournament.[17]
The disappointing World Cup campaign was followed by a successful qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, where they finished top of their group, above Germany on head-to-head records. The Czechs beat co-hosts Switzerland 1–0 in their opening game, before being beaten 3–1 by Portugal, this meant that they, and Turkey carried identical records going into the final group game. The Czechs took a 2–0 lead just past the hour mark and looked set to qualify. The Turks, however, scored three goals in the final 15 minutes of the game to win the game 2–3,[18] and that signalled the end of another disappointing performance at a major tournament and the final match for coach Karel Brückner.
After the failure to impress at the European Championship, the Czechs faced World Cup qualification, being drawn in Group 3, under the guidance of coach Petr Rada. They started with a 0–0 away draw against Northern Ireland, which was followed by a poor performance against Poland, losing 2–1. A late goal from Libor Sionko won the next game 1–0 against Slovenia. This was followed by an unconvincing win against San Marino, and a goalless draw in Slovenia. In their following match, against neighbours Slovakia, a disastrous 2–1 defeat at home left the Czechs in a precarious qualifying position. Manager Petr Rada was dismissed and six players were suspended.[19]Ivan Hašek took temporary charge as manager,[20] gaining four points from his first two matches, as the team drew away to group leaders Slovakia and thrashed San Marino 7–0 in Uherské Hradiště. They subsequently beat Poland in Prague but followed this result with a goalless draw against Northern Ireland, finishing third in the group and failing to qualify for the World Cup. Hašek announced his immediate resignation.[21]
The 2010s
Czech Republic in 2014
A much changed team under new manager Michal Bílek entered the Euro 2012qualifiers. The campaign began disastrously with a home loss to Lithuania. But an important win at home to Scotland was followed by wins against Liechtenstein. World champions Spain defeated the Czechs in between the Liechtenstein games, but the play-off spot was still in their hands. In the next game, a controversial last minute penalty from Michal Kadlec away to Scotland secured a 2–2 draw.[22] Despite Scotland winning their next two games and the Czechs again being defeated by Spain, the team could finish second if they could beat Lithuania away from home in the final game, assuming Spain would beat Scotland at home. Spain won 3–1 and the Czechs convincingly defeated Lithuania 4–1 to seal second spot and a place in the play-offs. The Czechs were drawn to face Montenegro in the two-legged play-off. A memorable goal from Václav Pilař and a last minute second from Tomáš Sivok helped the Czechs to a 2–0 first leg lead. In the second leg in Podgorica, a late goal from Petr Jiráček sealed a 1–0 win and the Czechs ran out 3–0 aggregate winners and qualified for Euro 2012.
At the tournament, the Czechs lost their opening game 4–1 to Russia, with their only goal coming from midfielder Václav Pilař. In their second match, against Greece, the Czech Republic went 2–0 up within the first six minutes thanks to goals from Petr Jiráček and a second from Pilař. Following the half-time substitution of captain Tomáš Rosický, Greece scored a second-half goal following a mistake from Czech goalkeeper Petr Čech, although there were no more goals and the Czech Republic recorded their first win of the tournament.[23] Going into their third and final group match, the Czech Republic needed at least a draw against co-hosts Poland to advance to the knock-out stage of the tournament. A second-half strike by Jiráček proved the difference between the teams as the Czechs ran out 1–0 winners. Due to Greece beating Russia in the other group game, the Czech Republic subsequently finished top of Group A,[24] becoming the first team to ever win a group at the European Championships with a negative goal difference.[25] The Czech team faced Portugal in the quarter-finals. In a tense and cagey game of few chances, Portugal eventually made the breakthrough with 11 minutes remaining through a header from Cristiano Ronaldo to win the match 1–0 and eliminate the Czechs.
Due to the improved performance over Euro 2008 (as well as their previous World Cup qualification campaign), Bílek stayed on as coach, despite unrest amongst fans, and was tasked with qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.[26] The Czechs were drawn into UEFA Qualifying Group B along with Italy, Denmark, Bulgaria, Armenia and Malta. The beginning of the campaign was stuttering,[26] with two goalless draws with Denmark and Bulgaria, paired with a narrow win against Malta, capping off their first three games. The team then had a setback in their fourth game, losing 0–3 to Denmark at home. The team was able to win against Armenia and draw with group leaders Italy, but lost to both Armenia and Italy in the rematches, greatly dimming their qualification hopes.[26] Bílek resigned[26] after the loss and was replaced with assistant coach Josef Pešice.[27] In their last two games with their new coach, the Czechs recorded wins over Malta and Bulgaria but lost to Italy, leaving them in third place and ending their qualification hopes. Pešice resigned as coach following the conclusion of qualifying.
Pavel Vrba, the well known coach of Viktoria Plzeň, was appointed as the team's new coach on the first day of 2014, ahead of Euro 2016 qualifying.[28] The Czech team, which was much changed from their disappointing World Cup campaign, was drawn into a tough[29] group for qualifying, namely Group A, along with 2014 World Cup semifinalists Holland, Turkey, Iceland, Latvia and Kazakhstan. The Czech team began with a win, defeating group favourites Netherlands 2–1, and followed up with victories over Turkey, Kazakhstan and Iceland, leaving them as group leaders with maximum points after four matches. A draw at home against Latvia followed; nonetheless, the Czechs remained group leaders, and on 6 September 2015, the Czech Republic qualified for their sixth European Championship. However, they only managed to get one point from a draw with Croatia, losing to Spain and Turkey and suffering their worst performance in the European Championship. During a friendly match against Australia on 1 June 2018, the Czechs recorded their biggest defeat losing 0–4 in Sankt Pölten, Austria.[30] They got their worst defeat during their first qualifier for Euro 2020, as they were beaten 0–5 at Wembley Stadium by England.[31]
Ten different cities hosted national team matches of the Czech Republic between 1994 and 2011.[32] The most commonly-used stadium is Generali Arena, the home stadium of AC Sparta Prague. As of 3 June 2014, the team has played 36 of 92 home matches there. Since 2012, competitive games have also been held Doosan Arena, Plzeň.
Stadiums which have hosted Czech Republic international football matches:
(Above Information in both tables taken from individual player pages, based on players from the Czech Republic international footballers page (List of Czech Republic international footballers))
Related Research Articles
Milan Baroš is a Czech footballer who plays as a striker for Baník Ostrava in the Czech First League.
Pavel Nedvěd is a Czech retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Described as one of the best footballers of his generation, he is also regarded as one of the most successful players to emerge from the Czech Republic, winning domestic and European accolades with Italian clubs Lazio, including the last Cup Winners' Cup, and Juventus, whom he led to the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final.
The Bulgaria national football team represents Bulgaria in international football and is administered by the Bulgarian Football Union, a member association of UEFA. The team's home venue is the Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia, and is currently managed by Georgi Dermendzhiev.
The Slovakia national football team represents Slovakia in men's international football competition and it's governed by the Slovak Football Association (SFZ), the governing body for football in Slovakia. Slovakia's home stadium from 2019 is the reconstructed Tehelné pole in Bratislava. Their head coach is Pavel Hapal. Slovakia is one of the newest national football teams in the world, having split from the Czechoslovakia national team after the dissolution of the unified state in 1993. Slovakia maintains its own national side that competes in all major tournaments since.
The Greece national football team represents Greece in men's international football and is controlled by the Hellenic Football Federation, the governing body for football in Greece. Greece play most of their home matches in or near Athens, either in Athens at the Olympic Stadium in the Maroussi section of the city or in the port city of Piraeus at the Karaiskakis Stadium just outside Athens. Greece is one of only ten national teams to have been crowned UEFA European Champions.
The Turkey national football team represents Turkey in men's international football and is controlled by the Turkish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Turkey. The team represents both FIFA and UEFA.
The Poland national football team has represented Poland in men's international football competitions since their first match in 1921. The team is controlled by the Polish Football Association, the governing body for football in Poland.
The Czechoslovakia national football team was the national association football team of Czechoslovakia from 1920 to 1992. The team was controlled by the Czechoslovak Football Association, and the team qualified for eight World Cups and three European Championships. It had two runner-up finishes in World Cups, in 1934 and 1962, and won the European Championship in the 1976 tournament.
Antonín Kinský is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played club football in the Czech Republic for nine seasons, winning the national league in 2002 with FC Slovan Liberec. He subsequently moved to Russia, where he played for Saturn Ramenskoye. During his seven years in Russia, he played 200 competitive games and was recognised as the Russian Premier League's best goalkeeper in the 2007 season.
René Bolf is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He spent most of his club career at FC Baník Ostrava, also playing in his home country for Sparta Prague. During a three-year stay in France, he played for Ligue 1 side AJ Auxerre.
Pavel Mareš is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a defender at either centre-back or left-back. He played top-league football in the Czech Republic for Bohemians Prague and Sparta Prague, and played for Zenit Saint Petersburg in the Russian Football Premier League.
Roman Týce is a Czech former professional football player. He played club football in the Czech Republic and Germany, as a defender and defensive midfielder. Týce played internationally for the Czech Republic at Euro 2004.
Vratislav Lokvenc is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a striker. After playing youth football for Náchod and Hradec Králové, he began his senior club career with the latter team. After moving to Sparta Prague he won five league titles and one cup, as well as the 1999–2000 league top scorer award. He subsequently played abroad, playing club football in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for 1. FC Kaiserslautern, VfL Bochum, Red Bull Salzburg, FC Basel and FC Ingolstadt 04. He retired in 2009.
Jan Suchopárek is a Czech football coach and former defender, who is head coach of the Czech Republic national under-19 football team.
Luboš Kalouda is a Czech former footballer. He has represented his country at under-21 level.
David Limberský is a Czech professional footballer who plays for Czech club FC Viktoria Plzeň. He has previously played for Modena, Tottenham Hotspur, and AC Sparta Prague. He was a member of the Czech Republic national football team.
František Rajtoral was a Czech professional footballer who played as a right winger or right-back. He last played for Turkish club Gaziantepspor, and was best known for his stint at Viktoria Plzeň. He was a member of the Czech Republic national football team.
Pavel Kadeřábek is a Czech football player who currently plays for 1899 Hoffenheim and the Czech Republic. He previously represented his country at under-19 level and was in the Czech squad for the 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, where he played all five of his country's matches.
Filip Novák is a Czech professional left-footed football player who currently plays in the Süper Lig for Trabzonspor. He holds the Fortuna Liga record for most goals scored in one season by a defender with 11 goals in the 2014–15 season.
Tomáš Rosický is a Czech former professional footballer who was the captain of the Czech Republic national team for a ten-year period. He played club football for Sparta Prague, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal. He was nicknamed "the little Mozart" for his ability to "orchestrate" the midfield.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
