Portugal - Czech Republic Preview

The second round of the group stage gets underway this Wednesday. Portugal who started the Euro in the best possible way, with a convincing win over Turkey, will now have to play the Czech Republic, the only other undefeated team in the group.

In the first round, the Czech Republic defeated hosts Switzerland by 1-0 in a game in which the Swiss could very well have won.
The Czech Republic reached Euro 08 by topping group D, ahead of Germany, they compiled a record of 9 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss having only allowed 5 goals. They are an older side and they seem to be going through a transition phase, a changing of the guard if you will, nonetheless there are players on their squad with large amounts of experience - Cech, Grygera, Jankulovsi, Galasek, Ujfalusi, Baros and Koller can all be identified with the Czech Republic of the past 8 years. They suffered a great blow with the loss of Rosicky to injury and his absence impacts this Czech team.

The Czechs come into this game in the driver seat, they are happy to be in the underdog position, and would be happy taking a point from Portugal, but don't think that's what they'll do. They will make use of their experience and their "Giant" up front to try to bring Portugal down to earth.
On the other hand, Portugal comes into this game with high levels of confidence, after a good performance against Turkey, Portugal hopes they can continue at the same level they showed in the first game and show every one that they are true contenders.

Here's Scolari's Starting 11:




Same line up as in the first game, the old "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" saying applies here. I enjoyed the way the team played, but I'm concerned with the excess confidence the team might have, let's hope Scolari is able to keep the players focused, and that he was able to make some tweaks to make the team even better.
With a win, Portugal can clinch a spot in the quarters, and take advantage of the last game against the Swiss to rest some players ahead of the more arduous part of the tournament. There's enough quality on the bench to keep the team at an acceptable level, and it wouldn't surprise me if Scolari, rested players. But first, they will have to get past this Czech side, who are also looking for that quarter final spot. With a very tough game coming up in the third round, the Czechs will be trying to take away the importance of that game with a win over Portugal.

Keys to the Game:

Focus - After a few days in cloud 9 and being catapulted to "the favorites to win it all" pedestal, Portugal needs to stay humble and realize that this is only the start, and only consistency can bring success.

Koller and Cech - Stopping Kohler, beating Cech, could get us half way there. The giant Koller wasn't sought after too much in the first game, and that is something the Czechs will try to rectify. Set pieces, and high balls will be aimed at Koller, in hopes he can knock one down and someone can pick up the second ball, we might not have the height, but Carvalho's and Pepe's speed will need to make up for that lack, by the means of anticipation. Getting past Cech, one of the best in the world, is also something that Portugal needs to find away to do. The Chelsea keeper can easily keep his team in the game, Portugal can't be wasteful, and will need to have a high effective rate, if Portugal is to beat the Czech Republic.

Ronaldo and Simao - Both wingers need to be very active in order to penetrate the experienced Czech defense, they are experienced but showed some deficiencies in the Switzerland game, speed and intelligent penetration will get the job done.
All eyes will once again be on Ronaldo, Simao will need to step up and shoulder some of that starring role, Ronaldo will show up, no worries.

A game as important as the first one but with somewhat different consequences, if there was pressure to start off well in the first game, in this one there is the importance of giving continuity to what it was done on Saturday.

FORCA PORTUGAL!!