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.

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.