Czech Republic national football team: Map

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The Czech national football team is the national football team of the Czech Republic

and is controlled by the Football Association of the Czech Republic.

History

Before World War I, Bohemia (present–day Czech Republic), whilst part of Austria–Hungary, played seven matches between 1903 and 1908, six of them against Hungary and one against England. Bohemia also played a match against Yugoslavia, Ostmark and Germany in 1939 while being the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Outside Stadion Eden

When the Czech Republic was part of Czechoslovakia

, the national team had runner–up finishes in World Cups (1934, 1962) and a European Championship win in 1976.

When Czechoslovakia

split and reformed into the Czech Republic and Slovakia

, the Czech Republic national team was formed, and they played their first friendly match away to Turkey, winning 4–1, on 23 February 1994. The newly formed team played their first home game in Ostrava

, against Lithuania, in which they registered their first home win, a 5–3 victory.

Their first competitive match was part of the UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying campaign, in which they defeated Malta 6–1 in Ostrava. During the campaign, the Czech Republic registered six wins, three draws, and a embarrassing defeat against Luxembourg, finishing their qualifying Group 5 in first place, above favorites the Netherlands. In the final tournament, hosted by England

, the Czechs progressed from the group stage, despite a 2–0 opening game defeat to Germany. They continued their good form, and progressed to the UEFA Euro 1996 final, where they lost 2–1 to the Germans at Wembley Stadium

.

Given their success at Euro 1996, the Czechs were expected to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. However, they finished third in their group, behind Spain, and Yugoslavia, and subsequently failed to qualify.

They did, however, qualify for Euro 2000, winning all ten of their group games, conceding just five goals. The team failed to perform well at the finals though, producing just one win, and being eliminated in the group stage.

Once again, the Czech Republic failed to qualify for the World Cup, this time finishing second in their group, behind Denmark, and then being beaten 1–0, and 0–1 by Belgium in the UEFA play–offs for a place in the finals.

They progressed to the finals of Euro 2004, qualifying through their group ahead of the Netherlands, and their only dropped points being in a 1–1 draw away to the Oranje. In the Euro finals, the Czechs progressed to the semi–finals, where they were beaten 1–0 by the eventual upset champions Greece

The Czechs finally qualified for a FIFA World Cup, qualifying for the 2006 edition in Germany

, via a play–off against Norway, winning both legs 1–0. They seemed set to progress to the last 16, with a 3–0 win over the USA, however, 2–0 defeats to Ghana, and Italy promptly ended their hopes of progression.

The disappointing World Cup campaign was followed by a successful qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, where they finished top of their group, above Germany on head–to–head records. The Czechs beat co–hosts Switzerland 1–0 in their opening game, before being beaten 3–1 by Portugal, this meant that they, and Turkey carried identical records going into the final group game. The Czechs took a 2–0 lead just past the hour mark and looked set to qualify. However, the Turks staged a stunning comeback in the last 15 minutes of the game to win the game 2–3, and that signaled the end of another disappointing performance at a major tournament and the final match for coach Karel Brückner.

After the failure to impress at the Euro, the Czechs faced World Cup qualification, being drawn in Group 3, under the guidance of coach Petr Rada. They started with a 0–0 away draw against Northern Ireland, which was followed by a poor perfomance against Poland, losing 2–1. Their campaign was looking more and more like a nightmare when they had loads of trouble to defeat Slovenia, winning 1–0 thanks to a Libor Sionko goal with ten minutes to go. The team was looking like in a recovering moment when they defeated San Marino, and managed to get an draw in Slovenia. However, their following match, against their neighbors Slovakia, meant a impacting 2–1 defeat at home that left the Czechs in a terrible situation, and it was also coach Petr Rada's last match. Ivan Hašek took over as both Czech FA president and manager, slightly improving things, as they drew away to group leaders Slovakia and thrashed San Marino 7–0 at Uherske Hradiste

. They entered the penultimate matchday with a game against Poland to win, and hoping that Slovenia did not defeat Slovakia. They did their task, but the Slovaks weren't able to theirs, and lost 2–0, which meant that minnows San Marino had to hold the Slovenians to a draw to give the Czechs a chance of reaching the play-offs. Effectively, their hopes had sunk, and the 0–0 draw against the Northern Irish was a mere formality which ended the first Czech failed campaign since 2002.

There was a large confusion in the western media over the head coach of the Czech national team in November 2009. Former player Vladimír Šmicer was named as manager of the administrative division on 11 November 2009, just one day after he had retired from football. The term manager (which has a different meaning in Czech language) caused a widespread speculation. In fact the Head coach of the Czech national Team is Michal Bílek as of November 2009.

Record in major tournaments

World Cup

For 1930 to 1994 records, see: Czechoslovakia

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1998	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Round 1	20	3	1	0	2	3	4
2010	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Total	1/4		3	1	0	2	3	4

Confederations Cup

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Third place	5	2	1	2	10	7
1999	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2003	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2005	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2009	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	1/8	5	2	1	2	10	7

European Championship

For 1960 to 1992 records, see: Czechoslovakia

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1996	Runner-up	6	2	2*	2	7	8
2000	Round 1	3	1	0	2	3	3
2004	Semifinal	5	4	0	1	10	5
2008	Round 1	3	1	0	2	4	6
2012	²	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	4/4	17	8	2	7	24	22

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty shootout.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Notes

² Qualification not yet begun

Managers

 Václav Ježek (1993)

 Dušan Uhrin (1994–1997)

 Jozef Chovanec (1998–2001)

 Karel Brückner (2001–2008)

 Petr Rada (2008–2009)

 František Straka (2009)

 Ivan Hašek (2009)

 Michal Bílek (2009–)

FIFA World Cup qualification

Results over the last 12 months

Full history of results

Date	Home Team	Score	Away Team

19 November 2008		0–3
11 February 2009		0–0
28 March 2009		0–0
1 April 2009		1–2
5 June 2009		1–0
12 August 2009		3–1
5 September 2009		2–2
9 September 2009		7–0
10 October 2009		2–0
14 October 2009		0–0
15 November 2009		0–0* (penalty shootouts)
18 November 2009		0–2