Czech Republic vs England
, KO: 17:00 , Batumi Arena, Georgia
ENGLAND expects. But this time it's not the usual ‘it's coming home' nonsense, it's the European Under 21s Championship and the young Three Lions open the tournament with a game against Czech Republic.
The tournament will be staged in Romania and Georgia and England will play their two games in Georgia in Batumi and Kutaisi.
But for all their resources and huge array of young talent, England have a very disappointing record in this tournament. They have been eliminated in the group stages in five of the last six tournaments.
Former Everton midfielder Lee Carsley is in charge and he has a squad that looks on paper to be packed with talent. Big names include the likes of Arsenal's Emile Smith Rowe, Liverpool duo Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott, Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White and Chelsea talent Levi Colwill is in after training with the full England squad recently, along with Newcastle United's Anthony Gordon.
England have the advantage of knowing their opponents well. They played them in their qualifiers to get to the tournament and won 3-1 at home and 2-1 away.
The Czechs won this tournament 21 years ago and their only defeats in their qualifiers came to England. Their squad is entirely domestically based.
How the bookies view it
England are solid favourites here and the best price is 4/7 with Coral.
The Czechs can be backed at 5/1 with bet365 and the draw is 3/1 with BetVictor.
Recent head to heads
England beat the Czechs in qualifying as stated winning in Burnley and Ceske Budejovice.
Players to watch
Aston Villa starlet Cameron Archer has been tipped for big things. He scored 11 goals for Middlesbrough on loan in the Championship last season in just 17 starts. he is 8/5 to net with Paddy Power and is respected.
Anything else catch the eye?
England should get off to a decent start against a team that should hold no fears to them. The obvious bet here is the same as both of the qualifiers – England to win and both teams to score at 13/5 with William Hill.
For all the talent in their squad, they are not always the most reliable – they lost to Slovenia in the qualifiers and needed a late goal to beat Andorra. They also lost their last two friendlies to Japan and Croatia, although walloped France 4-0, so there are consistency issues.
There are usually goals when they play though, so go for over 2.5 goals at 37/40 with BetVictor too.
This match between Czech Republic and England will be played on and kick off at 17:00. Check below for our tipsters best Czech Republic vs England prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
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