Czechs advance to Euro 2012

The Czech national soccer team qualified for the FIFA European Championship after beating Montenegro 1-0 in the second leg of the qualification playoff round Nov. 15. Having won 2-0 at home, the Czechs won 3-0 on aggregate and comfortably secured a spot in the Euro 2012 finals to be held next summer in Poland and Ukraine.

It was not only the victory but also players' celebrations that raised emotion in the country's soccer community. The joyful players let off steam on the way home from Podgorica, with some taking the opportunity to attack the team's critics, who had pointed at the team's mediocre play during qualification.

"I don't give a f*** about the critics," striker Milan Baroš said moments after the match.

Before boarding the plane on the way home, the team marched around the airport terminal and started a vulgar chant insulting former Czech team player Radek Drulák, who repeatedly criticized the Czech team's poor play in earlier games.

"Radek Drulák has no c*ck," the players chanted.

Onboard the plane, the players went wild, and many later left the plane with torn suits. Some of them, including striker Tomáš Pekhart, got off the plane without trousers, just in his shorts.

"The players will pay for the suits. Their behavior was started by the younger team members, and it spread like an epidemic," said the Czech team manager, Vladimír Šmicer.

The newly elected Czech Football Association's chairman, Miroslav Pelta, deemed the players' controversial behavior "unacceptable." Still, he appealed to the media and also the public to forgive the players.

"We should pardon them for once, especially because of their advancement to Euro 2012," Pelta said.

In fact, the Czech team's advancement over Montenegro was not as comfortable as the 3-0 aggregate score may suggest. After a lackluster first half, the Montenegrins, who were trying to reach their first championship since gaining independence in 2006, went all out on the attack in the second half and created several good opportunities.

Their best chance came in the 51st minute, when Dejan Damjanović's angled shot hit the bar after a touch by Czech goalkeeper Petr Čech. Minutes later, Montenegro forward Mirko Vučinić wasted another good opportunity by heading over the bar from close range.

Montenegro coach Branko Brnović said his team was "desperately unlucky."

Against the run of play, midfielder Petr Jiráček scored the Czechs' winner with a low shot from some 10 meters out in the 81st minute after surging past two Montenegrin defenders.

"At that time, we knew we had qualified. There was no way the Montenegrins could score four goals in the time remaining in the game," Čech said.

The draw of Euro 2012 will be held in Kyiv Dec. 2. The Czech team will be put into the fourth basket together with France, Denmark and Ireland, so they will not challenge any of these three teams in the first round of the tournament.

František Bouc can be reached at
fbouc@praguepost.com