England U21 vs Czech Republic U21 preview

June 18, 2011
By: Frank Beresford

It is now perfectly clear that this match will decide the second team to qualify for the semi-final alongside Spain as we cannot really expect Ukraine to triumph over La Furia Roja.

England need a win to go through, whereas Czech Republic would qualify even with one point provided Ukraine don’t beat Spain, which certainly gives the Czechs the upper hand in the tie.

Just like their senior counterparts, England Under-21 side have been desperately underperforming at major tournaments and this time is no different.

If Stuart Pearce’s men could be forgiven for taking just one point against Spain, they certainly should get some stick for the goalless draw with Ukraine.

England are surprisingly the favourites to win this game, but odds of 2.10 (11/10) offered by Paddy Power on home win certainly don’t represent a real value for money.

Henri Lansbury should be fit to play after recovering from a shoulder injury, meaning Stuart Pearce will again have full squad to choose from.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Fielding – Walker, Smalling, Jones, Bertrand – Henderson, Muamba, Rodwell – Sturridge, Welbeck, Sinclair.

Czech Republic did well to beat Ukraine in their opening game, thus increasing their chances of progressing from a very difficult group.

However, the Czechs simply couldn’t stop Spain in their second group game, although the 2:0 defeat hasn’t put them in such a difficult situation before the England game.

Jakub Dovalil’s side are very likely to go through if they don’t lose this match, so we see a good value in backing Czech Republic not to lose at odds of 1.75 (3/4) offered by William Hill.

Lukas Vacha is the only absentee at the moment seeing that he is suspended after picking up two yellow cards.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-4-1): Vaclik – Celustka, Suchy, Mazuch, Lecjaks – Gecov – Dockal, Vacha, Moravek, Hlousek – Pekhart.

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