West Ham United: Czech media react to Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal display in draw v Poland
West Ham United stars Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal started for the Czech Republic as they played out a 1-1 draw to Poland in their qualifier for the UEFA 2024 European Championships.
Soucek cancelled out a first-half opener by Poland’s Jakub Piotrowski to earn a 1-1 away draw in their Euro 2024 Group E qualifier on Friday, with both sides still yet to seal qualification.
The Czechs are second on 12 points, two points behind leaders Albania — who qualified with a 1-1 draw away to Moldova earlier on Friday (17 November) – and one point ahead of third-placed Poland.
And the Czech media had their say on the performances of Soucek and Coufal.
Midfielder Soucek was handed an impressive 8/10 for his performance on Friday, with iSport (17 November) writing: “The captain of the lifeguard. At a key moment, he floated alone in the box and scored. He received a terrible blow from the cleats on the face, blood spurted from him. But he finished the match with a face on his head.”
Meanwhile, Coufal was handed a 6/10 for his display, “He started the Czech equalizer with a sharp cross into the box, and after the break he gradually increased his performance. Before the first goal, however, he fell on the line and let Zalewski make a key escape.”
Soucek scare
There have been countless times where we’ve seen Soucek on the end of a bloodied incident and having to wear a bandage for his troubles and that was again the case of Friday against Poland.
The West Ham United midfielder certainly showcased an action-packed display scoring the crucial equaliser and his numbers on the night make for impressive reading.
As per SofaScore, Soucek won eight of his duels, registered two key passes, won three tackles, and recorded one clearance and one block in a complete display for his country.
Such performances have been hard to come by consistently in a Hammers shirt in recent weeks but David Moyes will certainly be hoping he can carry this forward now.
The same can be said of Coufal who also exerted his defensive steel against the Pole and both Czech stars will be mightily crucial for their country as they look to finally secure a place in next summer’s tournament.
Moyes will be watching on with glee and anxiety hoping both of them return to the West Ham United fold unscathed and in fine form.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers want to break the bank to sign one exciting Serie A attacker who is priced at £17.5m.