Czech Republic 3-0 England

UEFA European Under-19 Championships
Sportpark Eschen/Mauren - Eschen
Sunday 20 July 2003

England crashed out of the European Under-19s Championships on Sunday following a 3-0 defeat to Czech Republic which saw Michal Bilek's side leap-frog the Three Lions into the Semi-Finals.

Following victory over France on Friday, Stuart Baxter's team needed only a point to virtually secure qualification from Group B, and would have felt very confident against the Czechs, who had conceded seven goals in their two games to date.

And with the score still tied at 0-0 at the half-time whistle, the last-four berth looked even closer for England. However, only three minutes in to the second period, a Ladislav Volesak free-kick was half dealt with by Luke Steele and Lukas Nachtman was there to volley home the rebound.

The Czechs extended their lead on 54 when Volesak - again the provider - set-up Josef Brodsky for a vicious half-volley that introduced itself briefly to the crossbar before hitting the net.

Volesak was now casueing more problems to England's defence and almost made it three, but just after his shot went wide of the upright, Pavel Širanec 63rd minute break opened up a chance to strike and his low shot flew past Steele and into the far corner of the goal.

Afterwards, Coach Stuart Baxter felt his team did exactly what was asked of them in the first forty-five, but when they went a goal down, they were slow to react and the game drifted away from them. 

"It's a massive disappointment for the players. Tactically they played a very, very good first half," he said.

"We knew that the Czechs were going to put everything they had into this game, we wanted to make them work in the first half and take the sting out of them.

"We did that. In the second half they badly needed a goal to keep them alive and Luke Steele, who's been fantastic all toutnament, gifted them a goal, and where we went wrong, the reaction to going a goal down wasn't good enough.

"Before we reacted we'd gone 2-0 down and then it was a question of the Czechs being so bouyant for a while and by the time we got back at them - we changed things in the last 15 minutes - the game was at 3-0 and it had gone for us and we were just playing for pride.

"But," he continued, "credit to the boys, they worked very hard right to the last minute. But when we went 1-0 down the reaction wasn't strong enough and we were still in it at one-nil one goal and we were through."  

Teams

Czech Republic
1 Cerny, 2 Procházka, 3 Nachtman, 5 Kadlec, 7 Volesak, 8 Siranec, 10 Klein, 12 Matula, 13 Brodský, 14 Mikolanda, 18 Neuwirth
Subs: 6 Pulkert, 11 Blazej, 15 Kobylik, 16 Bolek, 17 Malchárek,

Goals: Nachtman 48, Brodsky 54, Siranec 63

England
1 Luke Steele, 2 Justin Hoyte, 3 Peter Whittingham, 4 John Welsh, 5 Liam Ridgewell, 7 Wayne Routledge, 8 Ciaran Donnelly, 9 Tommy Wright, 11 Stewart Downing, 15 Dean Leacock, 16 Marcel McKie,
Subs: 10 Lee Croft, 12 Steven Schumacher, 13 Lee Camp, 14 Alan Moogan, 17 Jerome Watt, 18 Doryll Proffitt