BEYOND BELIEF
Czech sub strikes with late winner to give sloppy England a wake-up call
GARETH SOUTHGATE cut a lonely, worried figure on the touchline.
One thing England are very good at is winning qualifiers and, incredibly, this was their first defeat in one for 10 years.
A remarkable run – stretching back to Ukraine in October 2009 when they had already qualified for the 2010 World Cup – which made this defeat in Prague far more painful.
Now they are pegged back by Czech Republic who went joint top of Group A as boss Southgate (below) was given one hell of a wake-up call.
The front three are world class,the midfield were overrun by a pretty average Czech side and only keeper Jordan Pickford’s heroics spared England’s defence from conceding more goals.
But even Pickford could do nothing about substitute Zdenek Ondrasek’s winner which brought England crashing back down to earth.
It was a sloppy England performance.
Maybe they have believed too much of their own hype and got carried away dreaming about next summer.
England knew they only had to win in Prague to clinch qualification for their “home tournament” with players already taking about winning the trophy at Wembley.
Well, they can stop dreaming now and start waking up to the reality that you are never going to win major tournaments defending like this.
Of course England still look nailed-on to qualify but, after shipping three goals against Kosovo last month, and now gifting the Czech Republic a glorious victory, there will be a touch less swagger about Southgate’s players.
The likes of France, Belgium and Spain will fear England’s attack but they will feast on their defence if they carry on playing like this. Unless they improve dramatically, Euro 2020 will remain a pipedream.
Southgate must find a better balance between attack and defence, a stronger midfield and better defenders because the current back four look frail and vulnerable, short of confidence.
No wonder the Czechs celebrated wildly at the end, this was a glorious win just a few months after England thrashed them 5-0 at Wembley.
But this England team now looks as if it has got problems.
They were summed up in the first 10 minutes: showing they can score goals but they can also look horribly vulnerable
in defence and will carry on conceding until they solve the problem.
England were out of the blocks at lightning speed and their first proper attack resulted in a fifth-minute lead. Mason Mount, making his first start in midfield, fed Harry Kane (left) and England’s top scorer released Raheem Sterling with a brilliant first-time pass.
Sterling burst into the box, checked back inside and was tripped by Czech defender Lukas Masopust.
It was a clear penalty and Kane made no mistake to score his 27th goal for England in 42 caps.
Here we go, thought the 3,000 travelling England fans. But the optimism soon faded away.
The Czechs levelled from a corner after nine minutes.
Declan Rice slipped, Ondrej Celustka swiped at the ball, Michael Keane was caught ball-watching and Jakub Brabec bundled home.
England were overrun in midfield, Mount was pushed far too forward leaving Rice and Jordan Henderson exposed and the defence were being battered by wave after wave of attacks.
Keane is struggling and Harry Maguire is out of form at Old Trafford. Southgate changed it at half time to a more steady 4-3-3 and Sterling, England’s best attacker, and Kane went through but were denied by keeper Tomas Vaclik.
Meanwhile, Pickford made good saves to deny the Czechs.
But the stadium exploded after 85 minutes.
Danny Rose went down after a collision with Tomas Soucek, Masopust put over a cross and unmarked substitute Ondrasek scored on his debut just to rub salt into England’s wounds.