In the last 18 matches, the Czech Republic have left the field without losing on their own turf. And Denmark's national coach, Brian Riemer, has also taken note of that.
"That says a bit about the quality that we are going to face. We are facing a team that has had relatively reasonable success. They were promoted to the A-team in the Nations League and have had a long stretch without defeat at home, so we have to take that very seriously", said Brian Riemer on Monday's press conference.
However, Flashscore Senior News Editor and Czech football expert, Jakub Dvorak, says that the 18-match streak is not as impressive as the statistics might indicate, as most of the matches on home turf have generally taken place against opposition that doesn't rank amongst the best teams in Europe, apart from the goalless draw against Croatia last year.
"The 18-game unbeaten streak at home is largely because the Czechs haven’t faced any world-class teams at home. The Croatians were closest to that level; otherwise, the teams were either on the same level or even worse. Personally, I don’t put that much weight on it, because if the Czech Republic wants to make it to the World Cup, they should have used higher-quality opponents as a benchmark."
"The draw against Croatia (in the World Cup qualifying campaign) was influenced by the circumstances of the occasion. The Czech Republic lost heavily in Croatia, and there was a lot of pressure to ensure that didn’t happen again. On the other hand, the Croatians were comfortably leading the group and just needed to avoid losing in the Czech Republic. And they managed to do that," Dvorak told Flashcore.
The Czech spectators managed to create a very timid atmosphere as the host nation managed to stage a sensational comeback against the Republic of Ireland to confirm their ticket for the playoff final after a dramatic penalty shootout. But the relationship between the Czech national team and the fans hasn't exactly been a true love affair during the last few years, says Dvorak.
"The Czech stadium atmosphere isn’t anything special. Even in the last year, matches were played in smaller cities, and the stadiums still weren’t filled. There was only one game in Prague that was sold out, and that was against Croatia. On top of that, there were some conflicts between the team and the fans. It wasn’t until the match against Ireland that the atmosphere seemed good and unified, and you could feel great energy from the fans, which carried over onto the field", says Dvorak.
In Denmark, the Czechs are recognised as a football nation who have fostered great players like Pavel Nedved, Karel Pobosky, Milan Baros, Tomas Rosicky, Jan Koller, and others and built a tradition around playing attractive, creative, free-flowing, fast football. But those days are long gone, says Dvorak.
"The style of play played by Karel Bruckner’s team, leading the Czech Republic to the World Cup (2006), is, unfortunately, a thing of the past, and this is linked to the fact that we no longer produce such great players. The only skilled offensive player on this team who possesses individual abilities and can compete at a world-class level is Patrik Schick."
"We have plenty of solid centre-backs and hard-working midfielders, but we lack creativity and individual skill. On top of that, Slavia - one of the best teams of the past decade - plays a physically demanding style. Lots of tackles and duels, lots of running, plenty of crosses and long passes. They’ve been successful with it, and as a result, the national team has followed suit to some extent. Players like Tomas Soucek, Lukas Provod, Tomas Holes, Michal Sadilek, and Tomas Chory are clearly built for physical battles, not for attractive, combination-based football", ends Dvorak.