June 21st and today I'm going back 21 years to another Group Stage match at the Euro 2000 European Championships held jointly in Belgium and the Netherlands. This time it's Denmark against the Czech Republic in Liege.
I think that I must be one of the Czech Republic's biggest fans. By accident. It's just that every time that a tournament comes around and I buy tickets before the draw is made without knowing who I'm going to be seeing I seem to end up watching the Czechs. Not that I'm complaining you understand. Those of us of a certain age will remember the Czech Republic's (and Slovakia's) predecessor called Czechoslovakia which was dissolved in 1993. I managed to see the Czechoslovakians once at Wembley (one of England's pre-tournament build up games for the Italia 90 World Cup) and since the Czech Republic became an independent nation I've managed to catch them eleven times including matches at Euro 96, Euro 2000 and Euro 2012. You might also recall that I saw the Czech's again last Friday at Hampden Park and I have everything crossed that the FA are going to come up trumps for me with a ticket for tomorrow's Euro 2020 match against England at Wembley. Loyalty like this surely has to be rewarded right?
The game was held at Liege's Stade Maurice Dufrasne or Stade du Standard de Liege as UEFA seemed to want to call it at the time. Apparently Maurice Dufrasne was a former Chairman of Standard Liege who liked to take players home and cook them a slap up meal if they had played well. I can't imagine Daniel Levy doing that but perhaps the players can afford their own dinner nowadays? It wasn't only the stadium that had two names because Belgium is one of those countries divided by language. Liege is also known as Luik which I believe is the Flemish equivalent of the French name Liege.
The Czech Republic and Denmark were drawn together in Group D along with Tournament heavyweights the Netherlands and the eventual winners France. The game between the two was the third game in the Group and by the time it came around it was a dead rubber with both teams having already been eliminated following defeats against the Netherlands and France. So it became a matter of pride with the Czechs winning 2-0 in front of 20,000 thanks to two goals from Vladimir Smicer to leave Denmark with the Group's wooden spoon and null points as they like to say in Eurovision.
The Czech side that day contained the likes of Pavel Srnicek, Tomas Repka, Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky and Patrik Berger as well as the aforementioned Smicer. I also derived much mirth from their defender named Fuck All (or Milan Fukal as I think he preferred to be known). Anyway Fukal was precisely what Denmark got as the two eliminated sides went home empty handed.
CRB Match No. 1189
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