Euro 2008: Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic (Match Report)

June 8th, 2008

Before kick off was the usual pre-competition celebration, and this year it consisted of volunteers aged fourteen to seventy with boxes on their heads. They would then make different sceneries, including mountains and disco floors. When they had finished, there was a small firework celebration and hundreds of balloons were released from the boxes on people’s heads.

The celebration was over, the nation anthems had been sung: it was time for action.

The teams were lead out by their captains, who both had very serious looks on their face. Switzerland were wearing all red, while Czech Republic wore all white.

The game kicked off, and you could tell this match wasn’t going to be too exciting. After Switzerland got the ball, they sat inside their own half, with every single Czech Republic player behind the goal. The Swiss made a couple of runs down the wings, resulting in either being tackled or a poor cross most the time, forcing a couple of shots wide or into Petr Cech’s hands the rest of the time. Although the Czechs weren’t that much better, lumping the ball forward to their 6’7” striker, Jans Koller (who most the time didn’t get it, and when he did he was tackled.).

Then, right near the end the most memorable event of the first half. After a wild shot over the bar, the Czech Republic striker, Alexander Frei, jars his knee. He looks to be in serious pain, but refuses the stretcher and instead hobbles off with an ice pack strapped to his knee, wiping tears from his eyes.

In the second half is when the game came alive for the Czech Republic. About twenty minutes into the second half, Jans Koller is taken off for striker Sverkos. Sverkos then puts the Swiss defence under serious pressure, and after around 10 minutes on the pitch scores a nice half volley.

With about ten minutes to go, the Swiss stepped up a gear, pounding long balls into the Czech penalty box (every one of which was just headed back to them) and putting on several attackers. Although this late surge of energy was left right until the end, and was undoubtedly left too late, the Swiss failing to find a way into the Czech goal.

Final score:
Switzerland 0 – 1 Czech Republic.

Watch the GOAL:

Sphere: Related Content

Entry Filed under: Sports

Tags: 2008, 40 dollars, 40 us dollars, al-jazeera, aljazeera, aljazeera +1, aljazeera +2, aljazeera sport channel, aljazeera sports channel, aljazeera sports channel +1, aljazeera sports channel +2, aljazeera sports channel euro 2008, aljazeera sports channels, arabic, arsenal, art, asutria, Austria, broadcast, broadcasters, channel, channels, chelsea, city, club, clubs, coverage, croatia, Czech Republic, czhech republic, euro, euro 2008, euro 2008 calendar, euro 2008 goals, euro 2008 highlights, exclusive, football, france, Germany, GMT, goals, Greece, group a, group b, group c, group d, highlights, hotbird, italy, jazeera, jazira, jsc, jsc +1, jsc +2, jsc +3, jsc +4, jsc +5, june, laucnh, live, live scores, logo, manchester, mascot, mascots, match report, meireles, Netherlands, news, orbit, orbit middle east, pay tv, pdf, pepe, Poland, Portugal, raul meireles, Romania, russia, sattelite, schedule, scores, soccer, spain, sport, sport channel, Sports, subscribe, subscribers, substitute, sverkos, Sweden, Switzerland, team, teams, travel, Turkey, TV, tv network, uefa, uefa euro 2008, us dollars, venue, video