Tomas Soucek has revealed what West Ham teammate Declan Rice told him ahead of Czech Republic’s clash with England tonight.
The two teams go head-to-head at Wembley this evening having each picked up four points from their first two games, and Czech Republic know they can win the group with a draw having beaten Scotland and drawn with Croatia with a better goal difference than England managed in their first two games.
England will be favourites for this one, but they were against Scotland, too, and Gareth Southgate’s men put in an under-par performance and they were forced to settle for a draw.
MORE: Gary Lineker slams FA decision as two England stars told to isolate
The same result would do Czech Republic nicely, but according to midfielder Soucek, his West Ham teammate Rice, has already told him that won’t be happening, setting an interesting challenge for his opponent in the process.
Speaking to FourFourTwo, Soucek said: “That match will be a special moment for West Ham supporters, because I will be playing against Declan. We’ve spoken about it – he told us that we can’t win at Wembley and we said, ‘Well, remember your last game against us!’ It’s been fun, it’s been friendly. Only the 90 minutes on the pitch will be unfriendly, perhaps.”
Speaking about the last time the two sides went head to head at Wembley, a 5-0 defeat for the Czechs, the midfielder added: “I looked forward to that match because Wembley is an incredible stadium, but we were probably too scared by England and deserved to lose.
“I don’t remember that day pleasantly, but I was happy we could play against England again in the Czech Republic. We needed to support each other and not be scared. We had to believe in ourselves.”