Karel Brückner’s Czech Republic team have a mix of experienced campaigners and talented youngsters. They finished five points behind runaway rivals Holland in the qualifying group rounds for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but one point ahead of third-placed Romania, finishing unbeaten in their first eight games.

One of those victories included an 8-1 defeat of Andorra, to date the Czech's widest margin of victory in a competitive international.

The Czech’s won their opening five home matches in qualifying, before losing 2-0 in Prague to the Netherlands in their penultimate fixture in the competition.

Even with their talent and offensive firepower, the Czechs still needed a play-off triumph against Norway to book their first berth in the World Cup finals since the break-up of the former Czechoslovakia.

Offensively, they were amazing. They scored 37 goals in 13 matches, but defending often became an issue against stronger sides like Holland and Romania, a point recently shown in their 2-2 draw in a World Cup warm-up friendly away to Turkey, when the Czech’s controlled the game, leading 2-0 throughout most of the match, but conceded two goals in the dying minutes.

The Czech Republic have been drawn in Group E alongside Italy, Ghana and the United States, and any of those teams could potentially expose them at the back.

The Czech’s are currently No.2 in the FIFA world rankings, behind champions Brazil and ahead of the Netherlands, who are placed third.

No one can question the talent Karel Brückner has at his disposal. Milan Baros is always a threat to score goals and if Jan Koller is on-form, the big target-man can cause problems for even the best defenders in the world.

Borussia Dortmund’s Tomas Rosicky, who was top scorer in qualification, is solid in midfield along with Juventus’ Pavel Nedved, who came out of international retirement to help the team qualify, and the possibility of on-form Hearts midfielder Rudi Skacel getting the call-up to join veterans Karel Poborsky and Radoslav Kovac from Spartak Moscow, along with the youthful talent of Birmingham City‘s Jiri Jarosik, David Kobylik and Jaroslav Plasil from French side Monaco mean that the midfield is strong enough to cope.

Their goalkeeper is undisputedly Chelsea keeper Petr Cech, who has proved himself to be among the very best in the world.

Record-striker Jan Koller is desperately trying to recover from injury in time to help the attacking possibilities of the Czech’s, who also have former Liverpool and current Aston Villa striker Milan Baros, as well as Marek Heinz from Turkish side Galatasaray, Tomas Jun from fellow Turks Besiktas and former Liverpool star Vladimir Smicer, who now plays with Girondins Bordeaux in France, who can act as an attacking midfielder.

The expectations for the Czech Republic are very high. At their best, they can beat anyone. But they will have to play at their highest level throughout the tournament to have any chance against the big boys, as they look to find the consistency needed to be one of the real world football powers, and to justify their number two world ranking.

They should be able to get past the group stage. If so, it could lead to a wild ride all the way to the semi-final’s… or even better!

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Croatia Match Fixtures in the World Cup 2006 Finals

12-Jun-06	USA v Czech Republic	18:00 BST
17-Jun-06	Czech Republic v Ghana	18:00 BST
22-Jun-06	Czech Republic v Italy	16:00 BST

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Historic Facts

First International appearance: Turkey 1 - 4 Czech Republic (Istanbul, Turkey; 23 February 1994)

Largest win: Czech Republic 8 - 1 Andorra (Liberec, Czech Republic; 4 June 2005)

Worst defeat: Switzerland 3 - 0 Czech Republic (Zürich, Switzerland; 20 April 1994)

World Cup Finals Appearances: Debut appearance in the World Cup 2006 Finals

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Croatia Match Results - Europe World Cup Qualifiers, Group 8

Date	Match	Result
12-Oct-2005	Finland - Czech Republic	0:3 (0:1)
08-Oct-2005	Czech Republic - Holland	0:2 (0:2)
07-Sep-2005	Czech Republic - Armenia	4:1 (0:0)
03-Sep-2005	Romania - Czech Republic	2:0 (1:0)
08-Jun-2005	Czech Republic - Macedonia FYR	6:1 (2:1)
04-Jun-2005	Czech Republic - Andorra	8:1 (3:1)
30-Mar-2005	Andorra - Czech Republic	0:4 (0:2)
26-Mar-2005	Czech Republic - Finland	4:3 (2:0)
17-Nov-2004	Macedonia FYR - Czech Republic	0:2 (0:0)
13-Oct-2004	Armenia - Czech Republic	0:3 (0:2)
09-Oct-2004	Czech Republic - Romania	1:0 (1:0)
08-Sep-2004	Netherlands - Czech Republic	2:0 (1:0)

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