England have been crowned winners of their European Championship group before a ball has been kicked — by Jaroslav Silhavy, coach of their opening-game opponents.
The Czech Republic come to Wembley on Friday night to get the ball rolling in a section also containing Bulgaria, Montenegro and Kosovo, and Silhavy reckons that quartet are all playing to qualify for next year's finals as Group A runners-up.
His homeland were crowned European champions themselves in 1976 and got to the final, also at Wembley, 20 years later, but Silhavy is holding out little hope this time.
“England are the favourites. The other four teams will fight for second place," he said.
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Ranked 44th in the world, the Czech Republic didn't qualify for the 2018 World Cup finals, and midfielder Vladimir Darida admits they fear England’s dynamic attacking duo of Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling.
The Hertha Berlin man said: “We have watched a lot of videos of England. We have been paying extra attention to Kane and Sterling because they are very dangerous. The moment they have the ball it’s hard to stop them. We think they are very strong. But every player in the England team comes from a top club. It’s not about stopping only one or two.”
Darida says the Czechs are happy to be getting this fixture out of the way early, but insisted they will not be intimidated by the Wembley roar.
He said: “For every player of course it is a significant event to play at Wembley. I’m sure we will enjoy the atmosphere and not be too scared of it. I don’t think England will under-estimate us. I think it’s important we play them first ahead of all our other games.”
Silhavy is without captain Borek Dockal through injury and said of the Sparta Prague midfielder: “We only decided on Wednesday that the captain would not be playing. But he has stayed to support the team.
“Obviously the captain is a leader and we will miss him. We will miss his creativity and patience on the pitch but I’m sure we will be able to overcome it and show a good performance.”
