Czechs claim consolation victory
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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Czech Republic 5-1 Estonia
The 2008 finals hosts ended their Group 7 campaign with a comfortable victory to ensure they finished third in the final standings.
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The Czech Republic ended their 2008/09 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Estonia, a win that secured third place in Elite round Group 7.
Second-half surge
Both teams had lost to Spain and Germany to end their qualification hopes, and it was mini-tournament hosts Estonia who took a second-minute lead in Tallinn, Joonas Tamm heading in from a corner, Czech goalkeeper Roman Valeš also producing a fine save to deny Andrei Veis. Jan Navrátil levelled midway through the first period, and Josef Sural then saw an attempted cross come back off the post before half-time – but the second period was one-way traffic. Sural made it 2-1 five minutes after the restart before three late goals, including a second for Navrátil and two goals in added time from Dominik Kraut, a 90th-minute substitute, wrapped up a comfortable Czech victory.