Poland belief ended by hopeful Czechs
Saturday 10 October 2009
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Tomáš Necid (right) celebrates his goal with team-mate Daniel Pudil (©Getty Images)
The Czech Republic kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup finals and ended their opponents' dreams with a 2-0 win in Prague.
Victory required
Slovenia's 2-0 win against Group 3 leaders Slovakia denied the Czech Republic second spot in the section ahead of Wednesday's final matches and means that Ivan Hašek's side must now win their final contest at home to Northern Ireland and hope Slovenia fail to take three points in San Marino if they are to reach the play-offs. Hardly an enviable scenario, but the Czechs will be grateful to have any chance at all at this stage after their poor start to the campaign.
Substitute impact
They secured their place in the final-match shake-up with two goals in the second half against a Poland side that had threatened to keep them in check in the first period. In fact, it was the visitors who went closest in the opening 45 minutes when Petr Čech was forced to save Ireneusz Jeleń's shot from close range just after the half-hour. Tomáš Necid punctured the visitors' resistance on 51 minutes, however, just six minutes after coming on as a substitute, when he collected Tomáš Rosický’s pass and fired in.
Jeleń denied
Čech then made another stunning save to keep out Jeleń's header in the 58th minute while Milan Baroš failed to register in a one-on-one situation to give the home side some breathing space. They eventually earned that buffer when Plašil doubled their advantage in the 73rd minute, heading in a Zdeněk Pospěch cross to set the scene for a tantalising Wednesday night finale.
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