The Czech Republic and England both know they are through to the knockout stages of Euro 2020 but on Tuesday night when they meet at Wembley Stadium they will battle it to decide who wins Group D and progresses as group winner.
Czech Republic hold more of the aces in that regard as they only need to avoid defeat to end up in top spot whereas if England are going to retain home advantage in the last 16 they have to beat the Euro 96 finalists.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live in full on the ITV1 channel in the UK with the build-up to it getting underway at 7pm and the kick off at Wembley coming at 8pm.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic have continued their love affair with this tournament so far. They won their opening match, although if you look at the xG they were a little fortunate to do that, although to be fair the Czechs were two goals to the good early in the second half of that match and were content to sit back and soak up pressure thereafter. You wouldn’t say they were overly convincing in their second match against Croatia but they knew by that stage that they only needed a point to most likely progress.
The Czechs have something that every good team desires – a goalscorer who is in fine form. Patrik Schick has already scored what may well be the goal of the tournament and he goes into the match shared for the lead in the race for the Golden Boot and with at least one more match to come. Where they could do with a little bit of improvement is defensively but to be fair to them they haven’t been under siege in the competition yet.
England
England have been hit and miss in this tournament. They put in a good, controlled performance in what was meant to be their toughest assignment in the group against Croatia in the opening match but were then terrible against an admittedly well organised Scotland side, offering up no fluency with the ball and little urgency without it. It is all well and good doing enough to qualify but confidence comes from winning matches and playing on the front foot.
That will be the test for England here. They need to show they can trouble these sides. All eyes will be on Harry Kane as he hasn’t done much in the two matches to date but they should also be on Declan Ride and Kalvin Phillips in the centre of midfield because they bordered on being too negative and safe against Scotland. England have arguably the best set of attacking talent in this competition but it means nothing if Rice and Phillips don’t get them the ball.
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Team News
On the face of it there is no reason why the Czechs won’t name the same side which drew with Croatia, although they are now guaranteed to be in the next phase which might lead to them resting the three men who are on yellow cards.
England are also already through which will give manager Gareth Southgate the chance to get minutes into Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson to get them up to speed for the knockout matches. He might have to do without Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell who finished Monday isolating from the rest of the camp.
Betting
When the group was drawn I expected to find myself backing England to win this match. When these two met in qualifying England won 5-0 here and although I didn’t think history would repeat itself to that tune, I did expect England to win. I still do although I’m not as strong on it as I was before the Scotland game, especially now both teams have qualified for the next round taking a little of the competitive edge away from the game.
I will take a bet though and that is for Raheem Sterling to score anytime. He notched a hat trick in that qualifying win I referenced just now and although I don’t expect this to be as open a game and I recognise this is a changed Czech side from that one, they are still devoid of any pace in their back line which the Manchester City man can exploit. There has been a lot of talk of England not passing forward against Scotland so I expect all the midfielders to get the ball on the half turn and look to slide forward passes through. Sterling is the perfect player to run onto those so the 13/5 that he finds the back of the net appeals here.
Tips
Back R.Sterling to score anytime for a 2/10 stake at 3.60 with Coral
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