The assumption is that Scotland have gained a substantial advantage by Petr Cech's absence for the Czech Republic this weekend, writes Chris Tait.
The problem for the visitors is that the talismanic Chelsea goalkeeper would be first-choice for most national teams, and the fact that neither Jaroslav Drobny of Hamburg nor Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk’s Jan Lastuvka have been able to displace him does not necessarily indicate an utter ineptitude between the posts.
Drobny is the more likely to start the match at Hampden and while he has endured a fairly traumatic start to the Bundesliga season -- Hamburg have conceded 14 goals in just four matches -- he has a wealth of experience and has represented the Czechs four times.
Lastuvka has not yet played for his country but kept a clean sheet as Dnipro defeated Fulham in the second leg of their Europa League play-off last month. It would be unwise for Scotland to rely on the weakness of Cech’s replacement, then.
“Hamburg have started the Bundesliga very badly and have lost a lot of goals in the first few games but, on the other hand, Drobny has a few caps and played well at Hampden [during a friendly in March],” Tomas Cerny, the Hamilton Academical goalkeeper and former Czech under-21 internationalist, said. “He has experienced that atmosphere which could be a large advantage for him. It will be hard [to replace Cech], especially in such an important game. You would rather have played such an important game after playing a number of games before, so for whoever plays in goals it will be difficult. But I think both of those guys are experienced enough to cope with that.”
The Czechs will also have to cope with pressure from back home. They were once ranked the second-best team in the world but have since tumbled to a comparatively lowly 42nd, with expectations falling at a far slower rate.
“I feel the fans and media were quite spoiled in that period of about 14 years where we played in almost every European Championship and World Cup,” said Cerny. “I would say we were over-achieving for years and now people expect to get through to every championship and expect to play good football but it’s not happening all the time now. That creates a lot of pressure because people are not happy.”
That discontent has dissipated somewhat after Czech club Viktoria Plzen reached the Champions League group stages this season, with the nation united in support. “Everybody got behind the team -- not just Plzen fans but all the country,” said Cerny. “I spoke with my dad and he said the atmosphere was really good in the country and the stadium in Prague was full of people watching Plzen.”
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