Match report: Czechia 0-2 England
Anybody can lose to Spain. But when England did so at Wembley on Saturday, it served to turn the temperature up on on this trip to Czechia, where England have form for finding it difficult. Remember the European championship qualifier here in 2019 when they lost 2-1?
It was not easy at first. Thomas Tuchel shuffled his pack, making the surprise decision to start Jude Bellingham among the substitutes. It was all a little angsty and Czechia, for whom this is the start of a new era under the Spaniard Santi Denia after their World Cup wash-out, dared to dream about another upset.
Then everything changed. It was a rash challenge in the 23rd minute by Pavel Sulc on Elliot Anderson, late and high, albeit nothing overtly nasty. The referee, Umut Meler, showed the Czechia midfielder a yellow card and on we went. Yet the video assistant referee was not happy and when Meler was called to the monitor, everybody knew what was coming next.
Anthony Gordon’s reaction
Good performance, quite dominant. Some things we need to work on – at times we were too passive when they a were a man down.
I said to Trent when I scored – I make that run time and time again but only certain players have the ability, technique and bravery to play that pass. That’s why he’s so good. I’ve been dying to play with him for that reason.
I miss playing with Hally [Lewis Hall]. He’s a top lad and it’s nice to share this stage with him.
I don’t know if I’ve ever scored a header! I work on it so much in training so I’m really pleased.
Full time: Croatia 0-2 England
A comfortable win for England in Prague. An early red card for Pavel Sulc made for a one-sided game, settled by second-half goals from the outstanding Anthony Gordon and the inevitable Harry Kane. Next up: Croatia away on Saturday.
90+2 min A low drive from Bellingham is pushed round the post by the diving Kovar. England could have scored three or four.
90 min It’s been a good night for England – a comfortable, drama-free victory that sets them up for the game in Croatia on Saturday. There will be two minutes of added time.
87 min It’s petering out, as you’d expect when it’s 2-0 and 11 v 10.
82 min: Good save by Kovar! Gibbs-White plays Gordon by beating his man and slipping a low cross into the area. It’s half cleared to Eze, whose shot from 15 yards is pawed over by Kovar. Excellent save, that.
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81 min Substitutions plenty. Morgan Gibbs-White replaces Anthony Gordon, probably the player of the match, and Czechia bring on Daniel Vasulin and Roman Macek for Adam Hlozek and Lukas Cerv.
80 min Gordon’s clipped cross is headed just wide of the near post by Rogers.
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79 min “Tom Hopkins appears to be forgetting a little thing we call ‘Wales at Euro 2016’,” begins Matt Dony. “(Yes, ‘threatening to win’ may be an exaggeration, but still, it was definitely delightful.)”
Not as delightful as your performance on the MBM of the semi-final, son. It makes me smile whenever I remember it. I wish I’d kept the unpublished emails.
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77 min Czechia break promisingly through Hlozek, whose long-range shot is pushed away by the diving Trafford. A comfortable save. The ball is screwed back to Mac Millings’ hero Lingr, who can’t control under pressure.
77 min “Hi Bob,” writes your friend and mine Mac Millings. “Mostly just following in the hope that Czechia’s 45th-minute substitute gets sent off for something foolish, so that I can ask, ‘Did you have to, did you have to, did you have to, Ondrej Lingr?’”
76 min ITV’s Lee Dixon, an expert in full-backery, makes a point of praising Lewis Hall for his performance at left-back tonight. To this admittedly ignorant eye, he looks a superb player.
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73 min “FYI,” says Paul Griffin, “the Czech for elephant in the room is slom v mistnosti.”
If I put that into Google Translate, will I get sacked?
71 min: Triple substitution for England Jude Bellingham, Rio Ngumoha and the debutant Alex Scott replaces Harry Kane, Elliot Anderson and Bukayo Saka.
GOAL! Czechia 0-2 England (Kane 69)
That’ll do. Eze plays a short pass into the area for Rogers, who is well challenged by Krejci. The ball runs loose and Kane sweeps a left-foot shot into the far corner. That – don’t adjust your browser – is his 87th goal for England.
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67 min England are comfortable, and I don’t know what else to tell you. Czechia have been better on the break since half-time without really threatening to sully James Trafford’s gloves.
65 min “I’ll put my hand up and admit I was not sold on Anthony Gordon and I was wrong,” writes Tom Hopkins. “Tuchel made a number of other selection decisions which were baffling at the time and have not aged well, but that one’s on his side of the scales.
“On more nostalgic matters, as they often do when Czechia play, my thoughts turn to their 2004 vintage, Nedved and all. Are they the last (relatively) small nation to pop up with a team that threaten to win something in delightful fashion? Maybe unfairly, I feel like Croatia have disqualified themselves by means of consistent excellence.
Do Russia 2008 count? (Size of football nation ofc.) But yeah, that 2004 Czechia team, especially the attacking quintet, are the dictionary definition of joy.
61 min Eze releases Hall on the left. His superb low cross is poked onto the far post by Krejci, who was facing his own goal and tried to stab it behind for a corner. The ball rebounds kindly for Czechia and the danger is cleared.
Plenty to like about the combination of Gordon and Hall tonight.
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60 min Kane wants a penalty match after a wrestling match with Krejci at a corner. Nothing doing, though Jake the Snake Roberts would have been proud of both men.
57 min: Czechia substitutions Lukas Ambros and Alex Kral replace Michal Sadilekj and Matej Radosta.
55 min Alexander-Arnold’s latest cross hits Saka on the back of the noggin and Czechia clear. This feels like a foregone conclusion, but, well.
52 min Gordon gallops into the area and pushes the ball back to Hall, who drags a left-foot shot wide of the far post. That was a pretty good chance.
48 min Nowt else to report. That was an excellent goal: a classic Alexander-Arnold assist and an accomplished header from Gordon.
Updated
GOAL! Czechia 0-1 England (Gordon 47)
England take the lead inside 70 seconds of the restrart. Alexander-Arnold retrieves a loose ball on the right and curls a fine cross around the Czechia defence. Gordon watches the bounce carefully and guides a header past across the keeper Kovar.
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46 min England have brought on Eberechi Eze for Myles Lewis-Skelly. Different midfielders for different needs.
Half-time reading
Half time: Czechia 0-0 England
All square in Prague. England dominated but struggled to break down the home side after Pavel Sulc was sent off for a poor tackle on Elliot Anderson. They have 45 more minutes in which to do so.
45 min Lewis-Skelly plays a short pass into the Kane on the edge of the D. He turns his man smoothly and whacks a curler that is pawed round the post by the diving Kovar. That’s a pretty good save.
45 min: Czechia substitution The injured Adam Karabec is replaced by Ondrej Lingr.
42 min Alexander-Arnold’s cross is headed across goal and wide by Rogers. It’s been all England since the red card but they haven’t created much.
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38 min The impressive Gordon beats Chaloupek and slides an excellent low cross that is cleared awkwardly in front of his own goal by Sadlek.
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35 min Lewis-Skelly is booked for a late tackle on Cerv.
32 min Czechia continue to defend deep. England aren’t naturally suited to this type of game but you can feel them trying to move the ball more quickly.;
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31 min A smart early ball from Anderson (I think) finds Gordon. whose shot from the angle is beaten away by Kovar. Decent effort but a comfortable save.
29 min A zig-zag move from England ends with Saka’s shot being deflected wide. Hall was offside in the build-up but it was nicely worked.
28 min Czechia were sitting deep before the red card so you can imagine the pitch map now. Two crosses from the left are cleared, first by Krejci and then by someone.
24 min: Sulc sent off!
Yep, Pavel Sulc is off. He plunged his studs into Anderson’s achilles and has been sent off. It wasn’t malicious but it was a poor challenge.
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23 min Sulc is booked for a poor challenge on Anderson. This might be upgraded as he caught Anderson on the achilles.
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22 min Hall makes a snappy challenge just outside the Czechia area on the left. Gordon collects and whips a curling shot just wide of the far post. That’s a pretty good effort.
21 min See 19 min.
19 min England continue to dominate possession but Czechia are lively and purposeful on the break. Thus far, it’s a decent game.
16 min: Rogers hits the post!
A precise low cross from Gordon finds Rogers, whose shot on the turn hits the face of the far post. Anderson’s follow-up is blocked, as is Saka’s.
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13 min Kane is well tackled high up the field. The ball runs to Sulc, who delays and delays and then drives a shot that is blocked by Chalobah. England are not oozing solidity in defence.
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12 min Radosta runs at Hall and clips a cross that is headed away by Guehi. Cerv addresses the loose ball with a volley from 22 yards that flies wide.
9 min Harry Kane is spoken to by the referee after an off-the-ball incident with Cerv. I’d like to see that again; at best, Kane was heavy-handed. But then aren’t we all.
7 min “In other news,” writes Charles Antaki, “England are officially defensively better than Croatia, we have just conceded a goal after one minute 12 seconds. Scored by Lamine Yamal, of course, whose dander was presumably up having been whacked by one of the more heavy-duty Croatians just a couple of moments before.”
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5 min: Chance for Czechia A long ball from defence skips past Anderson near the halfway line, allowing Sulc to run beyond Chalobah and through on goal. His touch is heavy and Trafford charges to the edge of the box to smother. Excellent goalkeeping.
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3 min Plenty of early possession for England, though nothing to report beyond that.
1 min Peep peep! England kick off from left to right as we watch.
There’s a minute applause in memory of the mighty Ludek Miklosko, a Blackburn and West Ham legend, who died earlier this month aged 64.
‘Just buckle down and do your time, like Leslie Grantham’
Thomas Tuchel’s pre-match thoughts
Two [of the changes in defence] are forced, with Nico O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa out. One is deliberate – we went for Trent.
The message is what we expect from him, where the spaces are… otherwise he doesn’t need a lot, he’s very experienced. It’s been a cursed position for us [with injuries], so today is his chancee.
[On Jude Bellingham’s omission] We had a chat this morning. Both our hearts said 60 minutes, but both our heads said 30 minutes make more sense.
Fifty years later
A kick remembered for comedic reasons, largely through Micah Richards and Alan Shearer chuckling about it every few months on their podcast. But at the time this was a moment of pathos and heartbreak, as Lineker passed up his best, if not his last, chance to equal Bobby Charlton’s all-time England goal record.
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This is Thomas Tuchel’s 24th England game – and his 20th different back four. The days of Stevens-Walker-Butcher-Pearce* are long gone.
* Yeah, yeah, I know they changed after the first game of Italia 90, but it was a settled back four until then.
Ian Wright, who is the part of the ITV team tonight, says Manchester City have been found guilty of “cheating on an industrial scale… an unprecedented punishment is required”.
Roy Keane, wearing a dark blue smoking jacket that makes him look like a volatile Hugh Hefner, says they “deserve that punishment” and that it’s “not good for the league”.
In other news…
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James Trafford looks genuinely affronted. The Leeds goalkeeper’s reaction borders on incredulity. Was it a season of frustration for him at Manchester City last time out, he is asked? A wasted year? “I won two trophies,” he says very simply and very firmly.
Defiance is the stock in trade of a goalkeeper and Trafford has a nice line in it, on and off the pitch. Thrust into the England lineup against Spain at Wembley on Saturday for only his third cap, he performed well, particularly during the opening 35 minutes when the world champions threatened to run riot. Trafford made two excellent saves that kept England in contention, laying the groundwork for their surge into a 2-1 half-time lead. They ended up losing 3-2 in the Nations League opener after Harry Kane missed a 54th-minute penalty for 3-1.
Czechia are also on nil points in Nations League Group A3 – they lost 2-1 at home to Croatia on Saturday.
England dominated Spain to an extent very few teams have in recent years. Sadly for them, not in terms of goals. Nor possession. But ownership of the ball is less important than where on the pitch it occurs. Thomas Tuchel’s side had 36 touches in the visitors’ penalty area, a ridiculously high total when put in context of Spain’s last decade.
They allowed just 9.5 touches per 90 minutes at the 2026 World Cup. The combined efforts of Belgium, France and Argentina registered 38 touches in the Spain box in the final three rounds of the tournament. Since available records began (at the start of Euro 2016), the most box touches a side has had against Spain was the 45 Germany had in the quarter-final of Euro 2024. However, that game went to extra time. France had 42 in normal time in the ridiculous Nations League semi-final they lost 5-4 last year, then come England, second best in regular time from a sample of 133 matches.
So, Trent Alexander-Arnold starts for the first time under Thomas Tuchel. As our football correspondent David Hytner points out, he has made only one appearance under Tuchel as a substitute against Andorra. For richer (mainly) and poorer, his inclusion will make England a different team.
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England ended 2025 protected by a shield of deceptive strength. They went through qualifying for the World Cup without conceding a goal and secured a shutout during a routine friendly win against Wales. However, clean sheets have been harder to come by this year. England have kept four in 13 games in 2026, meaning it may not be long before Thomas Tuchel rethinks his suggestion that the way to deal with his side’s lack of control is to embrace chaos.
There is, of course, an irony to telling Tuchel to sort out his defence. Isn’t this what we wanted? England were limp and passive when they lost their World Cup semi-final against Argentina. At least the mindset was positive when Tuchel’s side opened their Nations League campaign with a sprightly but flawed 3-2 defeat against Spain last Saturday.
Thomas Tuchel says it would be “madness” to allow his England players or the clubs to pick and choose their matches during the elongated Nations League window as he promised to go full throttle for victory against Czechia in Prague on Tuesday.
The manager did accept that Declan Rice needed to rest and could not be part of the squad in light of the Arsenal midfielder’s heavy workload across a number of seasons and well-documented fitness issues. Rice was at Wembley on Saturday to watch England lose 3-2 against Spain in their opening Nations League game.
You could feel it inside the stadium, one of those moments where the air starts to shift, the birds fly backwards through the sky, and outside on Wembley Way an old man clutches his copy of the England Pathway Blueprint to his chest and cowers up at the moon. Welcome to the witching hour, 55 minutes in, when things just seem to happen to Thomas Tuchel’s England.
Before this Nations League opener there was general agreement on the desirability of systems, pattern, repeatability. And you can’t say England aren’t consistent. Their last two significant matches, here and in Atlanta in July, have both involved going a goal ahead against the World Cup finalists, playing well and dominating parts of the game, right up until the 55-minute mark.
Team news
There are four changes for England from Saturday’s defeat, three in defence. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Trevoh Chalobah, Lewis Hall and Morgan Rogers replace Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, Nico O’Reilly and Jude Bellingham.
Rio Ngumoha, who was left out of the matchday squad on Saturday, is among the subs.
Czechia (4-3-3) Kovar; Chaloupek, Hranac, Krejci, Slama; Cerv, Sulc, Sadilek; Radosta, Hlosek, Karabec.
Subs: Hornicek, Kinsky, Kricfalusi, Zmrzly, Vasulin, Ambros, Vitik, Bucha, Macek, Lingr, Kral, Sacek.
England (4-2-3-1) Trafford; Alexander-Arnold, Chalobah, Guehi, Hall; Anderson, Lewis-Skelly; Saka, Rogers, Gordon; Kane.
Subs: Pickford, Steele, Scott, Konsa, Bellingham, Ngumoha, Branthwaite, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Gibbs-White, Eze, Quansah.
Referee Umut Meler (Turkey).
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Thomas Tuchel will resist making drastic changes to his defence despite England going six games without a clean sheet before facing Czechia in the Nations League on Tuesday.
Although Tuchel acknowledged that his side were a “danger to ourselves” when they lost 3-2 against Spain last Saturday, the head coach stood by Marc Guéhi and Nico O’Reilly after their errors against the world champions.
The message was one of continuity as England arrived in Prague for their second game in Nations League Group A3. Tuchel has injury concerns over O’Reilly and Ezri Konsa but is likely to keep the changes to a minimum at the back. James Trafford will continue in goal and Tuchel believes the defeat against Spain was down to individual mistakes rather than structural issues with England’s defending.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the Nations League game between Czechia and England in Prague. Big game, this. A win for England would reduce the slowly growing pressure on Thomas Tuchel; a defeat would give it more fertiliser and leave England up against it in the admittedly not-that-important battle to reach the Nations League quarter-finals.
England did a lot of good things against Spain on Saturday, and losing to the best team in the world should never be a crime. But rightly or wrongly, the mood around the England team has been febrile since their collapse against Argentina, so tonight matters. A good result – and an emphatic performance – would come in handy.
Kick-off 7.45pm BST.
