Scotland 2.23 Czech Republic 0.95 on xG
Schick’s second goal was under 1% probability. One of those which probably doesn’t tell the full story as the Czechs didn’t bother to do much once they got the second at the start of the second half
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They definitely have more quality in the middle of the field. They mightn’t have been great today but McTominay, McGinn, Armstrong would all be our best midfielder. Even someone like Fleck. I also think that Adams would walk into our team.
They’re certainly not fantastic and lack real quality in the final third compared to some of the other team of a similar level, same as ourselves.
Dykes should have scored.
Robertson in the first half.
Forrest made a chance for himself and could have scored.
The almost own goal.
Hitting the crossbar.
McGinn should have done better early on when he had a chance to tee up one of the strikers.
Any others?
One gilt edged chance, another decent one, a mistake rather than a chance, the rest were half chances.
The Czechs took one half chance and scored another improbable one.
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Dykes had 3 decent chances in 10 minutes there in the second half. The Czechs best chance was that one near the end
Dykes had the one where he prodded it from close range and the keeper saved, as well as the one where the keeper did really well to save with his feet.
Marshall had to make a couple of decent saves at the start of the second half, and one late on. But obviously once they went 2-up were happy enough to hold the ball and didn’t push much.
Steve Clarke shown up today. How he left O’Donnell for 80 minutes is beyond me. No Gimour either and Adams starting on the bench. A Scotish Mick McCarthy.
I think we’re a nice bit worse currently. Scotland went to Serbia and got through. You might say that’s not massively different to us getting a 0-0 in Slovakia but we had McGoldrick then and I don’t think we would have made many chances today had we been in Scotland’s position. We don’t make chances at home. Scotland at least regularly threatened the goal and despite their lack of guile played with a good spirit all through.
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Stuart Armstrong displaying all the symptoms of the Delta variant there.
Scotland had piles of chances . The Czech team was poor
Damien Duff is calling Schick “Schlick” now.
These consistent errors with naming have to be RTE policy to appeal to the self styled xenophobic “real people” who call them “the virus”.
Was it John Kenny commentating on the Scotland match there? He was perplexed by the Yes Sir we can boogie references and chants.
I agree with Dunphy, their coverage is borderline unwatchable now. Before you mightn’t care for the commentary but you’d watch the studio or whatever, but it’s poor across the board now.
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Damien Duff saying that he’d make a motivational video if he was in the Scotland camp. Didn’t he walk away from the Ireland set-up over such a video?
He walked away because of the reaction
Not really. There would be more of an edge if it was the Czechs or God forbid, the Russians. The fact it is on in Saint Petersburg might make it tasty with the locals.
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You’d have to say that for some of them at least the unique demands of travelling across Europe in a pandemic situation are contributing to this.
But George Hamilton, despite having the most arduous schedule, has as ever been the consummate professional. So the rest have no excuses.
Here’s the full list to date:
Italy v Turkey – Rome – George Hamilton and Stephen Kelly
Wales v Switzerland – Baku – George Hamilton and Ronnie Whelan
Denmark v Finland – Copenhagen – Stephen Alkin and Lisa Fallon
Belgium v Russia – St. Petersburg – Adrian Eames and Pat Fenlon
England v Croatia – London – George Hamilton and Kenny Cunningham
Austria v North Macedonia – Bucharest – Siobhan Madigan and Ray Houghton
Holland v Ukraine – Amsterdam – Stephen Alkin and Ronnie Whelan
Scotland v Czechia – Glasgow – John Kenny and Ronnie Whelan
George, Ronnie and Stephen are the workhorses. RTE are wisely utilising a wide variety of other staff and pundits given the distances involved.
Lapsed poster @Bartozs Bereszynski starting at right back for the Poles here
I watched the crucial Poland v Czechia qualifier in 2012 in Torun, Poland, which the Czechs won to eliminate the Poles. Locals were telling me there wasn’t much edge to the rivalry and they would wish the Czechs well for the rest of the tournament. The post match atmosphere was highly jovial despite Poland’s defeat.
There was a bit more edge to the atmosphere in the town during the Poland-Russia game a few days previously.
The overall atmosphere was probably helped to a good degree by a large Irish contingent who were all supporting Poland in both games.