Today I'm going back just three years to 2019 and England's Euro2020 Qualifier at the Sinobo Stadium (now known as the Fortuna Arena) in Prague against the Czech Republic. The Stadium / Arena is the home of SK Slavia Prague and has a capacity of 21,000 but the attendance on the night was just 18,651. The programme for the match, England's 998th International fixture, was actually given away free on the night and was a double issue that also covered the following Monday's Friendly against Severni Irsko (or Northern Ireland as you may prefer to call them). Depressingly, Northern Ireland did what England could not and beat their Czech hosts 3-2. The programme cover shows David Pavelka (trailed by Jordan Henderson) in the act of shooting during the qualifier played at Wembley the previous March which England had comfortably won 5-0.
In addition to the official match programme, I also managed to get hold of a copy of another freebie. "Free Lions" is an England fanzine issued by the Football Supporters Association (FSA) primarily as an English-language resource for the travelling fan and contains useful telephone numbers, a City guide and map plus information regarding the collection of pre-ordered tickets (there were no official tickets available to fans not ordering via the official channel "England Fans"). Not dissimilar to a programme, Free Lions is highly collectable.
This match was a rare England away venture for me. I more or less gave up watching England overseas after 1993 as I found that I wasn't really enjoying all the hassle that went with following England abroad. I have found that, whereas when watching Internationals involving other countries there is a mood of celebration and party, England games feel more akin to entering a war zone. However, in 2019 I decided to give it another try and, with the opportunity to visit Prague too, I decided to watch England's European Championships qualification game against the Czech Republic (or Czechia as they're sometimes referred to).
With less than five minutes played in the featured game, England had the lead with Harry Kane (who else?) scoring straight down the middle from the penalty spot following a foul on Raheem Sterling in the area. So far so good then with the game and the score line going as expected but, although we didn't know it at the time, things were about to unravel for England. With just nine minutes on the clock, centre-back Jakub Brabec grabbed an equaliser for the Czechs from close range following a poorly defended corner. It was his first ever International goal (he now has 2 goals from 31 appearances for his country).
As the game proceeded, England looked increasingly out of sorts and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was called on to make important saves on several occasions. With the match seemingly heading for a draw, the Czechs introduced the heavily tattooed Zdenek Ondrasek, a forward playing his club football in the MLS for FC Dallas, for his international debut at the ripe old age of 30. With five minutes remaining, a Czech cross found Obdrasek with acres of space in the box to rifle the ball home and win the game for the Czechs. A goal on your debut can't be bad can it? Ondrasek, now playing in Poland for Wisla Krakow, has seven international caps to his name along with two goals.
It was England's first defeat in a tournament qualifier for ten years and was also England's first ever defeat to the Czech Republic (although England had previously lost twice to Czechoslovakia in 1934 and 1975). In beating England, the Czechs became the 36th country ever to do so. It was probably the best Czech performance for several years. In the end, England topped Qualification Group A with a record of seven wins and one defeat. Runners-up the Czech Republic also qualified for Euro2020 from a Group which also contained Kosovo, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
CRB Match No. 2342
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