Czech Republic will be looking to maintain their 100% record in European U21 Championship qualifying when they face England on Thursday. England need a win to close the gap on the leaders but face a difficult task against the Czechs, who have been perfect throughout the qualifiers.
It has not been a smooth start to the qualifiers for England, who are surprisingly playing catch-up to Czech Republic and Albania. They sit third on the table, five points behind the Czechs but still with a game in hand.
England are attempting to move on from a disappointing 2021 European U21 Championship campaign where they crashed out in the group stage after suffering two defeats. They tend to struggle against some of the bigger teams lately as evidenced by the defeats against Switzerland and Portugal during this summer’s tournament.
Lee Carsley’s men have two wins in these qualifiers both of which have come against the bottom two sides Kosovo and Andorra. They were given a stern test when they met Slovenia and had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Czech Republic travel to England off the back of a 3-0 victory over Kosovo in their previous qualifying fixture. They took a two-goal lead into the break thanks to efforts from Vaclav Sejk and Adam Gabriel while Daniel Fila added the third after the break.
Jan Suchoparek’s men are the team to beat in Group G as they hold a perfect record of four wins from four matches and sit at the top of the group. Not only have they won all their games in the qualifiers, the Czechs are also yet to concede a goal.
While keeping their defensive discipline, Czech Republic have lost none of their attacking power and are the leading scorers in the group with nine goals from four matches.
How the bookies view it
England have the upper hand among the bookies and are priced at 4/9 by bet365 to claim the win. A victory for Czech Republic is priced at 11/2 by bet365, who are also offering odds of 3/1 for a draw.
Head to head
There have been three previous matches between England and Czech Republic at this level with both teams claiming one win each and one draw. The most recent meeting between both teams was a 1-0 victory for England in a friendly in 2015.
Players to watch
Cole Palmer will be the one to watch for England having scored two goals in three qualifying matches. The striker is priced at 5/2 by bet365 to score anytime on Thursday.
Forwards Vaclav Sejk and Daniel Fila were both on target last time out against Kosovo and could be the ones to watch for Czech Republic. Bet365 has Sejk and 5/1 to score anytime while also offering 4/1 on Fila in the same market.
Anything else catch the eye?
While Czech Republic are yet to concede, England have the attacking quality to test their defensive discipline. Both teams could be tipped to score at 20/21 with betway while over 2.5 goals could also be considered at 9/10 with bet365.
Both teams appear evenly matched going into Thursday’s clash so a halftime draw could also be on the cards at 5/4 with bet365.
This European match between England U21 and Czech Republic U21 will be played on Nov 11, 2021 and kick off at 19:00. Check below for our tipsters best England U21 vs Czech Republic U21 prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
