 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
   | 
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Czechs cruise into play-off place
 Rosicky (right) celebrates his goal with team-mate Karel Poborsky HELSINKI, Finland -- The Czech Republic secured a place in the World Cup playoffs after beating Finland 3-0 in the their final Group One qualifier. Striker Tomas Jun opened the scoring in the seventh minute, midfielder Tomas Rosicky added the second with a shot from 15 meters in the 51st and Marek Heinz claimed the third soon afterwards. The Czechs finished as group runners-up to the Netherlands, who have qualified directly, with Romania third and Finland in fourth place. "This was a difficult game in that we had to win," said Czech coach Karel Brueckner. "The start was pretty nervous and having one goal never means anything. It was only after the second goal we started to calm down. "I cannot think of any oponent we would like to avoid in the playoffs," he added. Czech striker Milan Baros missed the game with an Achilles problem. "I made the decision not to use Baros straight after the match against the Netherlands as I wanted to spare him for the playoffs," Brueckner added. Finland were without striker Aleksei Eremenko, who scored eight goals in qualifying, midfielder Aki Riihilahti, striker Mikael Forssell, and defenders Petri Pasanen and Hannu Tihinen. Dutch are heldMeanwhile, Group One winners Netherlands were held to a 0-0 draw by Macedonia in their final qualifier in Amsterdam. The Dutch ended up with 32 points from 12 matches, five points more than second-placed Czech Republic. Macedonia were fifth on nine points. It took the home team 37 minutes to create their first serious chance but Robin van Persie's shot hit the side netting. Macedonia goalkeeper Petar Milosevski dropped the ball on the hour under pressure from Ruud van Nistelrooy and Giovanni van Bronckhorst's close-range effort was cleared off the line. Edgar Davids came on as a 64th-minute substitute for Hedwiges Maduro, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder making his first appearance for Netherlands since he played against Finland a year ago. The Dutch went close again with 12 minutes to go when Wesley Sneijder's free kick struck the crossbar. It was a poor match today," said Netherlands coach Marco van Basten. "Today was not our day. We did not show the form we had (in the 2-0 win over Czech Republic) on Saturday." Even though the Dutch stretched their run to 16 games without defeat since van Basten took over in 2004, the coach was not entirely happy. "Macedonia proved a good defensive side, which doesn't suit us," he said. "We dropped four points in the group, all against Macedonia, and that says everything. "It is a pity to finish this way at home. We wanted a good performance but my players just did not do what we planned." 
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
