At the end of a 2-0 defeat by England in Prague, the Czechia coach turned left, walked along the touchline, shook Thomas Tuchel’s hand and said something he thinks he had never said at full-time: “See you soon.” To which Tuchel said back: “See you soon.” Seven days later, via Oviedo and Rijeka respectively, they meet again, at Wembley. “Four matches in 11 days, no time to train, for anything; I haven’t heard a single national coach say they like the new setup,” Santi Denia says, but it’s not all bad and there’s a big smile too.
This is the start of a new life, yet familiar faces await, warmth in every word. Very familiar faces. If Czechia’s opponents in this Nations League could not have been much worse, they could not have been much better either. In Oviedo, Denia’s team played his country, his players; in London, for the second time in a week, they play the nation he knows better than any other, more footballers he has seen grown up. Hello, again.
