![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Gavin-C-133x133.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Gavin Cooney<\/p>\n
reports from Prague<\/p>\n
NEW CZECHIA CAPTAIN\u00a0Ladislav Krejci led the hosts\u2019 bullish pre-game talk ahead of tomorrow\u2019s World Cup semi-final play-off against Ireland, declaring that \u201cWe will make it, we will reach our goal: we will qualify for the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krejci of Wolves has taken over the captain\u2019s armband from West Ham\u2019s Tomas Soucek, who was stripped of the honour at the end of last year after a flashpoint between players and supporters at the end of World Cup qualifying, in which\u00a0Soucek complained the players\u2019 did not feel sufficiently supported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Miroslav Koubek was hired as the new coach after all of this drama, and at 74 years of age, he will take charge of the Czech national team for the first time tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Local reports suggest Soucek will start on the bench against Ireland, though Koubek refused to give away any hints as to his team selection. He instead paid heed to the discord that led to Soucek\u2019s losing the captaincy by calling for the home supporters to rally behind his players against Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope all the fans will come together\u201d, said the Czech coach, \u201cwe really count fully on your support and if we as a nation can do something, it is to join forces for important sporting events and support the team fully, so please be with us tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koubek meanwhile reacted angrily to a question suggesting he had previously dismissed Ireland\u2019s playing style as primitive. The coach was quoted a few weeks ago as having described Ireland\u2019s approach as characteristic of \u201cisland football\u201d, but rounded on an Irish journalist for suggesting he believed Ireland\u2019s approach was old-fashioned, suggesting the issue was with dodgy Google Translate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI never said your game style was primitive, please don\u2019t put words in my mouth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seamus Coleman is nonetheless using Koubek\u2019s alleged comments for another little spark ahead of kick-off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI use everything as motivation\u201d, said Coleman at a press conference conducted before Koubek\u2019s. \u201cI would like to say I don\u2019t. But I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"miroslav-koubek-listens-to-a-live-translation\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774452070_82_.JPEG\")
\n Koubek listens to a translation of questioning from the travelling Irish press pack. Ben Brady \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Ben Brady \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
Today Koubek described Ireland as \u201cmature, smart, and efficient\u201d, saying Ireland are effective on set pieces and would not allow the Czechs to surprise them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put a lot heart into your game, Ireland will definitely be a very tough opponent. But we will have a similar mindset, it will be a hard match definitely. Regarding [Troy] Parrott, he is outstanding. He is doing great, he is very fit. We know how he works, we do have some information, so now it will all be about eliminating him in a smart way. So we will just have to stop him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koubek postponed the final round of league fixtures in Czechia, meaning the 60% of the squad playing locally gathered last Thursday to get a head-start on preparations.<\/p>\n
Krejci meanwhile told the media he is feeling \u201cpositive vibes only\u201d, but did not respond to a question asking him about his relationship with Soucek. Both players come from opposing sides of the Slavia\/Sparta divide that defines Czech club football.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koubek reserved thick words of praise for Soucek, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTomas Soucek is an outstanding player with a great career\u201d, said the Czech coach. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have the captain\u2019s armband at this moment for reasons you all know, but nothing changes. It does not mean he will lose his value. He is still a full fat player, if I can use these words.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin Cooney reports from Prague NEW CZECHIA CAPTAIN\u00a0Ladislav Krejci led the hosts\u2019 bullish pre-game talk ahead of tomorrow\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[153508,84986,61,60,43,164401,3404],"class_list":["post-364559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-2026-world-cup-playoff","tag-czechia","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-opposition-view","tag-republic-of-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}