After the Czech Republic put away a very very decent Dutch side last night in the Euros, it only affirmed what we have all begun to realise:
Slavia Praha, and the Czech national side are not only a very decent side themselves, but very very decent indeed.
We overlook the scandal side of Rangers’ UEL tie against the Czech cracks, and concede we were beaten not only by a better side, but by a much better side.
Clearly they were distracted by all of that chaos when they went to London and didn’t perform at all against a rather mediocre Arsenal, because their NT has been completely impressive at the Euros.
As Ibrox Noise’s Kevin put it, their NT was effectively Praha itself aside Romanian Nicolae Stanciu and they have now slaughtered Scotland and Holland with a fair level of ease.
Their performance v Croatia? They actually managed more shots than Zlatko Dalic’s side did, even if it was only marginal, and the same applied against England, albeit they’d qualified by then.
It puts into perspective Rangers’ performances against them – we underestimated them, every one of us. Apart from a few enlightened souls who might have realised how good Praha would be, every one of us, including management, failed to take them seriously and we paid for that.
And so did Holland last night.
Czech football is a lot stronger than many gave it credit for, and while we’re not 100% sure they can go all the way, well, they have as good a chance as anyone.
Does this make us feel better about losing to Praha? Not really – but we now understand what we faced that tie and it shows us why we should have taken them seriously.
A bit like most sides at the Euros haven’t….
Aye hats off to the Czechs did very well against both Scotland and Nederland’s . In truth they had good opportunities to at least draw with England . They all play in a higher standard of league than most Scottish players.
I was very impressed with Prague against us in both legs but particularly at Ibrox but I was reluctant to say so because of the way the club as a whole behaved over the Kamara racism. Czech football has always been strong including winning the Euros previously and runners up in 1996. It’s just a pity they are all racists.
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