Stuttering England suffer shock defeat
ENGLAND fell to their first qualifying defeat in a decade as debutant Zdenek Ondrasek secured the Czech Republic a deserved victory against Gareth Southgate’s stuttering side.
Having arrived in Prague knowing victory would assure progress to Euro 2020 with three matches to spare, England were expected to take the away win given the 5-0 shellacking handed out to the Czechs at Wembley in March’s Group A opener at Wembley.
Expectation grew with Harry Kane’s early spot-kick, only for Jakub Brabec to quickly bring the Czech Republic level and provide the platform for substitute Ondrasek to punish a ponderous England performance and seal a shock 2-1 win.
It ended a 43-match unbeaten run in Euro and World Cup qualifying matches stretching back to a 1-0 loss in Ukraine in October 2009 — and was a result Southgate’s men could hardly argue with.
Kane said afterward it was a wake-up call for the team, and felt his side paid the price for not capitalising on opportunities to regain the lead.
‘We went ahead early, it was the perfect start to an away game,’ he said. ‘But after that we were sloppy with the ball. They obviously scored not long after and we didn’t move it as quickly as we normally do.
Kane was mindful that the loss means England go to Bulgaria under greater pressure than they had hoped.
‘Every away game in Europe is difficult,” he told ITV. ‘They had the crowd behind them, maybe the pitch isn’t as great and as easy to play on. But there’s no excuse, we’ve played in these games before and we have to do better than tonight.
‘It’s a bit of a wake-up call, of course we’re still in a good position so there’s no need to panic. We obviously have to win the game on Monday but, for sure, we’ve still got stuff to work on.’
Manager Gareth Soughgate felt the result was reflective of his team’s performance.
‘Our performance wasn’t good enough, simple as that. We probably should have got a draw out of it, but in the end the goal we conceded was typical of the chances we gave away throughout the night.
‘There are things we can look back
on, but we have to accept that there weren’t enough good performances.’
CZECH REPUBLIC: Vaclik, Coufal, Celustka, Brabec, Boril, Soucek, Kral, Masopust (Zmrhal 90),Darida,Jankto (Kopic 83), Schick (Ondrasek 65). Scorers: Brabec 9,Ondrasek 85.
ENGLAND: Pickford, Trippier, Keane, Maguire, Rose, Jordan Henderson, Rice (Abraham 88), Sancho (Rashford 73), Mount (Barkley 72), Sterling, Kane. Scorer: Kane 5 pen.