"Earning the third-place playoff is a chance to make history". Jan Suchoparek, Czech Republic coach, clearly shown his ambition just after his team loss in semi-final of the Maurice Revello Tournament. Czech are disappointed they can't compete for the first place, but they still want to beat Scotland during the third place playoff. We saw a very tight game, if we refer to the first match between both teams during the group stage, won 3-2 by the Czech Republic.
"We still have a chance to finish on the podium. The Tournament is not over yet", said Scot Gemill, Scottish coach. "The last game against Czech was very tight, even if we lost it. We hope to be able to take our revenge". To do so, Scotland players should once again rely on Oliver Burke (SCO/7). The Scottish team star has scored the two goals of his team in the first match between these two squads. Despite the defeat of his camp, the Leipzig player caused many problems to the Czech centrer-backs. He took advantage of his pace to put Kral (CZE/13) and Chalus (CZE/3) in danger, especially by doing counter-attacks.
If this duo was exposed during defensive phases, they took part a lot to the construction of the Czech game. Martin Graiciar's teammates (CZE/19) had ball possession during this match, but also during the whole tournament. There are a lot of reasons to believe the next meeting between these two nations will be a "remake" of the first, in all aspects. But nobody knows if the offensive success will be on the side of Suchoparek's men once again on Saturday afternoon.
Anthony Guttuso -
Photo credits: Eric Estrade / Magali Ruffato