Czech Republic edge past China by 4-3 to secure 5th place in FIH Champions Challenge II
Tomas Prochazka marked a couple of goals, as Czech Republic slammed a 4-3 win over China for the 5th
and 6th place play-off fixture of the FIH Champions Challenge II that took place in Lille, France on July 10, 2011.
It was a brilliant game, where China and Czech Republic displayed outstanding performances. It was another shocking defeat for the Chinese team which has lost only a single game in the group stage.
With fifteen seconds into the first half of play, Xiantang Liu, the brilliant striker from China, made a lengthy run on the field and tapped the ball into the Czech’s goal to open the scoring at 1-0. Neusser Filip, the Czech goalie,
had no chance to stop the ball. It was the point which put Czechs under intense pressure at the very beginning.
However, the Czechs cranked up their offence and started attacking the Chinese side. With fast and furious of play, they succeeded to mark a tying goal in the 3rd minute of the match. Jakub Kyndl converted a penalty-corner
through a scooping shot and levelled the results with at one-all.
The Chinese men continued their game confidently and made penetrations into the 25-yard line of the Czech team. China converted another short-corner in the 14th minute of the match and regained a solitary goal lead. Yixian
Liu was the player who sent the drag-flick comfortably into the Czech goal-post and expanded the lead up to two goals, 3-1. On the other side, the Czech team failed to mark a goal despite several chances.
Liu was at his best form and notched his second goal of the day in the second last minute of the first half. It also obtained in the head of penalty-conversion that put China ahead of Czech Republic by two goals, 3-1. The attack of
Czech team came alive in the waning moments when Stepan Bernatek took the ball at the top of the circle and marked a superb shot into the goal to close out the period with them trailing by a single goal.
The second half of play completely belonged to Czech Republic which obtained a pair of goals that took the game into their favour.
It was an end-to-end play during the first 25 minutes of the second half of play. However, the Czech started putting extra efforts to make changes in the score-board. Tomas Prochazka, the veteran drag flicker of Czech Republic, scored off a couple of short-corners
respectively, in the 63rd and 65th minutes of the match and established their dominance on the field. As the half ended, the Czechs won the game by a single goal and secured the 5th place in the Champions Challenge II.
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