The Czech Republic will play only one match in the World Cup qualifiers during September - against Montenegro in Gorizia.
Coach Ivan Hašek announced the list of players for the duel that is crucial for both teams, and this time the legend was sitting next to him - Pavel Nedved, who has been the general manager of the national team since this summer.
Unlike the first match between these two national teams, the Czech Republic does not have Vladimir Coufal, the right-back who moved from West Ham to Hoffenheim this summer, who has yellow cards, nor the injured striker Adam Hložek.
There are, however, two new players, both of whom come from Jablonec - defender Martin Cedidla and midfielder Mihal Beran.
A call that came as a bit of a surprise to the Czech public also came for Tomas Hori, a striker who was recently suspended for six matches in the domestic championship after hitting goalkeeper Milan Heča between the legs.
"He was sorry for everything. We all saw that he didn't stop on the field at any point in that match. It was the 90th minute of the game, emotions were running high, it could happen to anyone. I'm not looking for justification for such an action, but Tomaš has our understanding. That was his first sending off and I don't think it will happen again," said Nedved.
The coach tried to explain how important Hori is to this team.
"Yes, we thought about whether to call him up, but he is a player who changes the course of the game, he is important for the team and thanks to him we can change the way we play. He is a different type of player, the one we need. That's why we decided on him," said Hašek.
The Montenegro - Czech Republic match will be played on September 5th, while three days later our national team will play against Croatia in Zagreb. During that time, the Czechs will play a test match against Saudi Arabia.
The Czech Republic beat Montenegro (2:0) in Plzen, but suffered a disaster against Croatia (5:1) just a few days later. They are currently the leaders of Group L with nine points from four matches, while Croatia and Montenegro have six each - the "fire" from two matches, the "falcons" from three.
CZECH REPUBLIC ROUND; Goalkeepers: Jindržih Stanrk (Slavija), Matej Kovarž (PSV), Vítezslav Jaros (Ajax); Defense: David Doudera (Slavija), Martin Cedidla (Jablonec), Tomaš Holeš (Slavija), Martin Vitik (Bologna), Robin Hranac (Hoffenheim), Ladislav Krejčí (Wolverhampton), Vaclav Jemelka (Plzeny), Jaroslav Zeleni (Sparta), David Jurašek (Besiktas); Midfield: Tomas Soucek (West Ham), Lukas Cerv (Plzeny), Alex Kral (Union Berlin), Mihal Sadilek (Slavija), Mihal Beran (Jablonec), Vasil Kusej (Slavija), Vaclav Cerni (Wolfsburg), Luks Provod (Slavija), Pavel Sulc (Lyon); Attack: Patrik Šik (Leverkusen), Tomaš Hori (Slavija), Jan Kuhta (Sparta), Matej Vidra (Plzenj).
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