Red spells end for Czechs

ByEurosport

Published 22/06/2006 at 17:27 GMT

The Czech Republic crashed out of the World Cup on Thursday after they were reduced to ten men just before half time. The dismissal of Jan Polak for a second bookable offence was clearly the turning point and, with a serious lack of strikers, the Czechs n

Polak's challenge from behind of Francesco Totti on 45 minutes deserved a second yellow card from Benito Archundia, the Mexcian official who took charge of the game, and the player only has himself to blame.

FOOTBALL 2006 World Cup Czech Republic-Italy Plasil

Image credit: Reuters

Indeed, when he looks back at the match, Polak will know that with a full compliment, the Czechs would have troubled an Italy side that has not yet reached their full potential

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Karel Brueckner's side were a minute away from an inspirational half time team talk from their coach that would have lifted spirits heading into the second half they chased a 1-0 deficit, but the exit of Polak changed all that.

What they were left with was a mountain to climb, and one that proved too steep to overcome.

TOO DIFFICULT

"Playing with 10 men was just too difficult today," said Brueckner, who's side's campaign has been hit by a number of injuries and suspensions to key players.

FOOTBALL 2006 World Cup Czech Republic-Italy Rosicky

Image credit: Reuters

Behemoth striker Jan Koller picked up a hamstring injury in the Czech's opening match against the US and has not been seen since, whilst Milan Baros went to the tournament injured, only tasting action for the first time in the Italy game.

Tomas Ujfalusi and Vratislav Lokvenc both missed out on Thursday through suspension, and Breuckner could be forgiven thinking that his tournament has been sabotaged by bad luck.

"We lost a lot of players before the game and had suspensions which hurt us in this tournament," the coach lamented.

"It is too early to assess and think about what might happen in the future."

FOOTBALL 2006 World Cup Czech Republic-Italy Totti Nedved

Image credit: Reuters

Baros - who did his best for 65 minutes before he tired and was substituted - said: "Italy played very well. It is not easy to score two goals against a team like this."

"We didn't play badly. We lost to Ghana in the second game. If we had got a point in that, it was 90 percent certain we would go through. "

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