Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Iceland vs Czech Republic
Competition: Friendly
Date: 8 November 2017
Kick-off Time: 14:45 GMT
Venue: Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium

Iceland played well in qualifications and it won the first place in very demanding group shared with Croatia,  Turkey and Ukraine. At some point, Icelnad seemed that they cannot reach even the 2nd place as they allowed themselves a luxury to lose to Finland but, in the meantime, they defeated Ukraine and Turkey, which was the key moment, away by sound 3-0. At the end, the Icelanders defeated Kosovo and ended up at first place with three victories and clean sheet. This is the first historic qualification for the FIFA World Cup and it follows first participation at UEFA European championship last year.
Facing Czech Republic is a good starting preparation for the World Cup and it will also face Qatar. Coach, Hallgrimsson, has problems to gather the team and he invited several players later on as a plan B. Players, Sigurdarson and Saevarsson, haven’t recovered yet.
Czech Republic won the last two qualification matches, but didn’t bring any good to the Czechs since they ruined their chance to qualify for the FIFA World Cup much earlier. They might have done something close to the end if they defeated Norway and Northern Ireland away and Germany at home, but they won just one point from those three games. Czech Republic hoped after qualifying for the final tournament of European Championship, where they didn’t make a name for themselves, to repeat the success and qualify for another major competition.
Their qualifying group wasn’t too difficult and the second place seemed to be theirs but, unfortunately, they didn’t play well. Several older players left the national team after the European Championship in France, which was felt in the team’s performance. The Czechs want to keep a good record after victories over Azerbeijan and San Marino, but, coach Jarolim, doesn’t have at disposal all players that he would like to see in the team. There are no defenders Kaderabek and Gebre Selassie, and midfielder Darida, while Dockal, Krejci and Zmrhal are injured. Young forward player, Schick, is also out of action, so the starting line-up will be truly a mixed team.

Probable lineups:
Iceland: Halldorsson – Ingason, R. Sigurdsson, Arnason, Skulason – Sigurjonsson, Gunnarsson – Gudmundsson, Bjarnason, G. Sigurdsson – Finnbogason
Czech Republic: Pavlenka – Boril, Brabec, Suchy, Novak – Soucek, Jankto – Kopic, Barak, Husbauer – Krmencik



 

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