Well, as much as I like the Czechs (my grandma comes from near Carlsbad) but the golden generation around Poborsky, Nedved, Kuka, Smicer, Berger etc. is long gone… the early discovery e.g. Hlosek is now more injured than fit… Slavia and Sparta are now relying on foreign players from Scandinavia and Africa (no blame)
Nevertheless, the statistics are actually not that bad with 14 wins from 26 games. Of course it was embarrassing against the Farör, but perhaps a somewhat hasty decision.
Well, it doesn’t sound bad, but:
Competitive games: 16 games – 7 wins, 4 draws, 5 defeats
7 wins were against Ukraine, Albania, Georgia, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Montenegro, Montenegro
5 defeats:
1:2 at the European Championships against Portugal
1:2 at the European Championships against Turkey
1:4 against Georgia
1:5 against Croatia
1:2 against Faroe Islands
With the exception of Ukraine (and possibly Georgia), they haven’t been able to win against any team on equal terms, plus the slap against Croatia and the embarrassment against the Faroe Islands in the qualification now.
They did (almost) reach 2nd place, which was probably the realistic goal, but you shouldn’t just pay attention to the numbers: With the Faroe Islands, Montenegro and Gibraltar they also got into an incredibly weak group, there are teams in the qualification that are in 4th place/last in other groups that have to reach 2nd place in this Czech Republic group!