BILEK UNDER PRESSURE

The Czech Republic national team manager Michal Bílek has come under increasing pressure in recent months due to the poor showing of the national team in major tournaments and friendly matches. However, his team managed a spectacular 3-0 win over Slovakia in a recent friendly match. This result, however, was not enough for the national team manager to release him off some pressure, as the chairman of the football Federation Miroslav Pelta has announced that he will be being more involved in the team affairs starting from this match. This comes as a major shock to the authority of the manager Michal Bílek.

However, he has said that his main task is to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and will not be concentrating on other aspects. Michal Bílek made a number of changes to the first-team for this match, as he gave debuts for the nine out of the 11 players in the match. He would have been extremely satisfied to see such a great response from the new players. So far, the Czech Republic national team has suffered due to the lack of young and upcoming talent. The likes of Petr Cech, Thomas Rosicky, and a few others are coming to the 30s and will not have a lot of time left in them for top-level international football.

“Making your debut is never easy, but these guys rose to the challenge. Now they have to prove themselves in World Cup qualifying,” Bílek said after the Slovakia match. Lafata, who was one of the best players on the pitch, helped the Czech Republic to a 2-0 advantage within 10 min of the match. Dočkal scored after 72 min in the second half to give Czech Republic a very good score. The team will play against Denmark in the March of next year.

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.