CECH READY TO COMPETE

Chelsea’s international goalkeeper Petr Cech has said that the title race this season will be competed against the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea. The Czech Republic goalkeeper has been one of the influential players for Chelsea over the last decade. Even though he has played in numerous matches for the club, he is still capable of producing the best in the big matches. The Czech republic stopper was one of the key reasons for Chelsea winning the Champions League title last season. After having made a great start to the new Premier league season, Chelsea have suffered a number of bad results since the 3-2 defeat against Manchester United.

Chelsea enjoyed a four-point advantage at the top of the table following the 4-2 win over Tottenham, but since then, they have been able to take only two points from three matches. This has allowed Manchester United to open a three-point advantage at the top of the table. Despite losing the advantage, the Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Cech is confident that the club can win the first league title since 2010. He has also identified in Manchester United and Manchester city, the two main competitors for Chelsea in the title race.

“We had a very good start. Manchester United started with a defeat but are now top and City had a very good victory because losing 1-0 you think Tottenham might get something out of the game but they managed to win and now have the advantage over us. It’s early days and we still have to play them (City) in two weeks, which will be a big game for both teams,” said the Chelsea goalkeeper after the 1-1 draw with Liverpool during the weekend. John Terry opened the scoring, but Luis Suarez equalised for Liverpool in the second half.

CZECHS AGREE ON CECH

The Czech Republic team doctor has said that they have come to an agreement with the Premier league club Chelsea over the issue of giving the star goalkeeper Petr Cech rest from the friendly matches. The 30-year-old Petr Cech is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and he has an important role within the national team. However, the team doctor of the national team has said that he is suffering from an elbow injury, which is not bad enough to keep him from playing, but he needs to be maintained properly in order to help him through the rest of the season without a surgery.

Chelsea have decided that Petr Cech will be undergoing a minor operation only in the summer in order to prevent him from losing key matches over the course of the season. As a result, they have struck an agreement with the Czech Republic national team manager Michal Bilek over the possibility of not playing him in the meaningless friendly matches. However, Petr Cech will be part of the Czech Republic national team in the key World Cup qualifying matches. Recently, the goalkeeper sat out of the 1-0 defeat at the hands of Finland.

“An investigation showed a bit of ossification in his elbow, so they [Chelsea] are planning a surgery in England after the season. They have asked us if we could rest him in friendly fixtures. We have come to an agreement with coach Michal Bilek and decided to be on good terms with Chelsea. We are going to grant their wish and rest him. Petr cannot stretch the arm properly. If he has to stretch the elbow, it hurts him sometimes,” said the team doctor Petr Krejci. Czech Republic have drawn their only World Cup qualifying match so far.

ROSICKY LEFT OUT

The Czech Republic national team manager Michal Bilek has confirmed that the Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky will not be part of the friendly against Ukraine. The Czech Republic will be playing against Ukraine in a friendly match on Wednesday. Ahead of this match, the manager Michal Bilek has given out his 19 man squad that will be facing Ukraine. One of the high profile players missing from this match is the Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky. The manager has confirmed that the 31-year-old has not recovered from the Achilles tendon injury suffered during the group stages of the Euro 2012.

Tomas Rosicky is widely known to be one of the best players for the Czech Republic national team during the past decade. However, he has suffered a lot of injury problems during his stellar career. His latest injury came in the form of the Achilles tendon problem that made him unavailable for the quarter-final match in the Euro 2012. The Czech Republic were ultimately knockout of the tournament from the quarter-final stage after they lost to Portugal. Speaking ahead of the match with Ukraine, Michal Bilek confirmed that Tomas Rosicky will not be playing any part in this match.

“Tomas is not in a good shape. We’ll be glad if he joins us after the Denmark game,” said the Czech Republic national team manager. There have been suggestions that the 31-year-old will finally announce retirement from the international scene in order to concentrate on his club career. He is almost certain to miss the match against Denmark that will take place on September. This is extremely crucial match for the Czech Republic because it will decide the outcome of the first World Cup qualifiers. Czech Republic will be hoping to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup that will take place in Brazil.

Racist Abuse?

It has been claimed that Czech Republic defender Theodor Gebre Selassie was the target of racist abuse in his side’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of Russia last week. It is alleged that Gebre Selassie was targeted by Russian fans when he went over to take a corner during the game.

‘Football Against Racism in Europe’, an anti racism pressure group reported the incident. “Our observer reported descriptions of that nature and it was directed at the Czech Republic’s only black player.” Said FARE’s director Piara Powar. He emphasised that the organisation were looking into the incident and searching for more evidence, as the alleged incident was not captured on camera.

The game also saw the displaying of a Russian Empire flag, a symbol that will have been particularly emotive with the Czech supporters. Their history as a neighbour of an often of Russian aggression would make the view of a symbol of Russian Nationalism at a clash between the two nations was clearly not meant in a not antagonistic way.

Aside from the Russian situation there are fears of, and indeed examples of racism in the tournament already. Manchester City‘s Mario Balotelli has been abused, albeit on the internet by his own supporters. The Italian nationalist group “Stormfront”, which is linked to the Ku Klux Klan abused the Manchester City ace saying “you are black, Jewish and should play for Israel” on their website. This stems from Balotelli’s recent visit to Auschwitz.

The England team are also fearful of being targeted by racists with Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Young amongst those worried by racism in football. Young told reporters about racist abuse he was a victim of as a child. “I was 11 and was racially abused by another player, you don’t expect to hear it at any age, but when you’re a youngster even more so. I got on with the game and managed to score two goals”.

UEFA and all the participating nations will hope that Gebre Selassie’s seeming minor brush with racism is the last we see of it in this tournament. The fear though is that it will not be.

BILEK SILENCES CRITICS

Czech national team coach Michal Bilek has said that he has silenced the critics, who have been extremely tough on the Czech Republic national team following their failure to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The Czech Republic national team have qualified for the Euro 2012, which will take place in Poland and Ukraine shortly. Czech Republic has a great chance of progressing to the next round after having been drawn in group where there are no favourites. The Czechs have been drawn in the group containing Poland, Russia, and Greece. Michal Bilek was given the responsibility of not only qualifying for the Euro 2012, but also building a team for the future.

He has been able to do that brilliantly, as Czech Republic qualified for the competition with a right mixture of experience and youth. The manager has said that he is hoping for a great Euro 2012 and believes that the team can use the win over Montenegro in the play-offs as a springboard to greater success in the tournament itself. Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky are clearly the most important players for the team. The best aspect in this regard for Bilek is that the aforementioned players are coming into the tournament in excellent form.

“We would like to follow up on the good end to autumn, when I think we played well,” said the national team manager following the 1-1 draw with Ireland in a recent friendly. Wolfsburg’s Petr Jiracek is a key player according to Bilek. He has also mentioned the good form shown by Vaclav Pilar of Pilsen. The national team will be playing in two more friendly matches against Hungary and Israel before the Euro 2012 kicks off. They will be hoping for a similar kind of performance as in the Euro 2004.