Tag: FIFA

ITALY GETS EXTRA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SPOT

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Football governing body UEFA has announced that Italy would get an extra qualification spot for the Champions League.


Initially, there were reports that England could lose a spot as Premier League sides struggled to impress in recent years. However, the continental football body decided to increase the slots for Italy without reshuffling the status quo.

Italy would now enjoy four spots as England, Spain, and Germany.

“Spain, Germany, England and Italy are confirmed as the top four associations regardless of what happens in the quarter finals and beyond of the two club competitions. And despite ending last season in fifth place, Portugal have fallen outside the top six and with all their clubs now out of Europe will not be able to overtake France and Russia,” a statement credited to UEFA read. Continue reading “ITALY GETS EXTRA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SPOT”

CECH RETIRES FROM INTERNATIONAL ACTION

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Arsenal current shot-stopper Peter Cech has announced his retirement from national team sporting activities following an impressive career that saw him won several individual silverware.


The 34-year old goalkeeper throughout his international career holds a record of 121 caps for country and competed in all three games that his country featured in before been thrown out of the group stage of 2016 Euro competition.

Cech made his first international debut in 2001 and went on to represent his country at the 2014 Euro. Cech’s performance in that competition saw the country finished third. The lanky goalkeeper then went ahead to captain his side at Euro 2008.

Although the world cup of 2006 was the only world cup he has competed in owing to his teams failure to qualify for subsequent world cup, Cech went on to represent his country at Euro 2012 and 2016. Following his glittering career, Cech has now called it quit, choosing to focus on improving his performance at Arsenal. Continue reading “CECH RETIRES FROM INTERNATIONAL ACTION”

NORTHERN IRELAND NAME SQUAD FOR CZECH GAME

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Northern Ireland has named the squad that would be paraded when they take on Czech Republic in the World Cup qualifier.


Coach Martin O’Neill named players he deemed fit to ensure they get past Czech Republic. O’Neill left out Wigan Athletic striker Will Grigg despite hitting four goals this campaign already. O’Neill chose Liam Boyce as his replacement, citing “personal reasons” as the rationale at a press conference. He opened up that the player would be missing as his partner was expecting a baby, and he didn’t want to miss it.

“He [Liam] was very unlucky to miss out of France. It was a toss of a coin between him and Will Grigg. He got a bad wrist injury and played poorly in the League Cup final even though County won the final, so his season fizzled out a bit after a strong first half, whereas Will Grigg finished strongly,” O’Neill explained.

O’Neill left out Linfield goal tender Roy Carroll, but named Tom Flanagan who has featured just once for Northern Ireland at Under 21 level. Flanagan was born in Hammersmith and he started his career at ML Dons. He was released in 2015 from his contract, but the central defender joined Burton Albion. Burton are playing in the English Championship for the first time, and Flanagan has been a regular. Continue reading “NORTHERN IRELAND NAME SQUAD FOR CZECH GAME”

CZECH REPUBLIC COACH LEAVES FOR RUSSIA

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Czech Republic coach Pavel Vrba has left the national team job to pick up a post in Russia, the Football Association confirms.

The coach failed to guide the team out of Group D at the ongoing Euro 2016 in France. He has now left to continue his coaching career in another role at Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia.


The 52-year old tactician led the team where they could only garner a point from the 2-2 draw against Croatia. The team lost to defending champions Spain and they then were defeated by Turkey in a shocking encounter. The finished bottom at the group, meaning their campaign ended instantly.

Vrba was the one who guided Viktoria Plzen to two league titles and a Czech Cup victory; he agreed to lead the national team in November 2013. He started the job in the first month in 2014, as the team had already failed to qualify got the World Cup which was hosted in Brazil. Since taking over, he has recorded some decent strides. One of which is leading the team to the top spot in Group A of the qualifying round for the European Championship. Czech qualified above Turkey, eventual quarter finalist Iceland and Netherlands, who later missed out at the tournament.
Continue reading “CZECH REPUBLIC COACH LEAVES FOR RUSSIA”

PavelVrba wants to focus against Croatia and Turkey

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It’s hard to deny the fact that Czech Republic has the hardest opponents to face in their opening match of the 2016 European Championship as they have to face off with the current champions Spain on June 13 of the ongoing year.

PavelVrba is the coach of the Czech Republic national team and he is aware that trying to claim a victory against Spain is extremely difficult and this is why he wants his team to instead focus on their upcoming matches against Croatia and Turkey, all of these games are scheduled to take place on June 17 and 21 respectively.

The 52 year old Czech manager of Czech Republic, PavelVrba talked during a press conference and said: ‘’We definitely have a very difficult group. Spain are one of the favourites to win the tournament. Us, Turkey and the Croatians will probably be fighting for the other qualifying spot. Maybe we have a slight advantage, because we start against Spain – the decisive matches against Turkey and Croatia will come later’’

‘’We know the Turkish team very well because we faced them in qualifying, so that can be an advantage for us. Facing Spain in the first match will be very difficult, of course, but the matches against Croatia and Turkey will be the crucial ones’’ Continue reading “PavelVrba wants to focus against Croatia and Turkey”

Latvia managed to hold Czech Republic on draw in their 5th Euro qualifying game

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Latvia managed to hold Czech Republic on draw in their 5th Euro qualifying game yesterday. That kept them at the second last position in Group A above Kazakhstan.

Czech Republic also remained no. 1 in the group despite getting only one point.

If somebody had offered a draw to Latvia at the start of the proceedings, they would have gladly taken it considering how they had been playing.

The draw was a surely a success from their point of view, but, the Czech would be gutted. They would feel they should have continued their winning streak against an out of form side.

Latvia had secured a couple of draws ahead of this fixture, but, they seemed to have no chance against the Czech.

It was not only because of the form, but, also because of the quality that the Czech had.

However, in Football, it’s not about the quality, it’s about performance and one will have to say that on that particular night, Latvia was on par with the Czech.

The Czech perhaps tried to play with a little more innovation. They were looking to win big. Latvia, on the other hand, was pretty happy waiting for the errors of the opposition. Continue reading “Latvia managed to hold Czech Republic on draw in their 5th Euro qualifying game”

Pavel Vrba already Outlined his Plans

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A few weeks after having been appointed as the head coach of the Czech Republic national football team, PavelVrba outlined his plans and what he is hoping to do with the Czech team as he stated that one of his objectives is to progress past the group stages of 2016 Euro’s and so far things have been going as planned for PavelVrba as his team are located at the top of Group A after having been able to secure consecutive victories over Netherland, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Iceland.

4 matches have been played so far and 4 victories is the track record of PavelVrba with Czech Republic which is a perfect start and the Czech manager unveiled certain things that he has done with the national football team as Vrba said that he gave a chance for the players who are regular performer for their respective clubs to appear and represent their country at the international stage.

“I gave the opportunity to players nobody believed in because they play in the Czech league. Both Plzen and Sparta Prague have proved that they are able to play against the top teams in European competitions so I showed trust in players who play regularly either abroad or in the Czech league,” PavelVrba said. Continue reading “Pavel Vrba already Outlined his Plans”