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Czech Republic play host to Montenegro tonight in the first leg of their Euro 2012 playoff clash.
Czech Republic made hard work of Euro 2012 Group I. They were the second best team (behind Spain) but almost conspired, through some poor performances, to miss out on a playoff spot and but for a questionable penalty call in Glasgow it could well have been Scotland taking their place against Montenegro on Friday evening.
Nonetheless, the Czechs did make it into the playoffs and now that they are here they have to be fancied to qualify for the finals in Poland and Ukraine.
One of the main reasons for this is the level of experience in Michal Bilek's squad, compared to that of his counterpart Branko Brnovic. The likes of Milan Baros, Tomas Rosicky, Jaroslav Plasil and Petr Cech all have experience of playing in major international tournaments, as well as Champions League finals, and they will know exactly what is required to make it through this week's playoff.
Montenegro, by contrast, have never reached a major international tournament and their most experienced player, Mirko Vucinic, is one who has moved around, without really starring for, a number of Serie A teams. The scenes after the Brave Falcons scored in the last minute against England to seal a playoff place were enough to suggest that for Montenegro, reaching this stage is already a huge achievement.
They will, however, give their all to qualifying for Euro 2012 and it is 4/1 at
bet365 that Montenegro beat Czech Republic on Friday evening in Prague. Their performances home and away to England would give them a chance but, looking beyond those, it is easy to imagine Brnovic's side struggling in the Czech capital.
Montenegro were beaten away to Wales when they needed a win and also lost on the road to Switzerland in Group G. They did, in fact, fail to win any of their last five qualifiers and are only really in the playoffs due to a run of three successive 1-0 wins back in September and October 2010.
By contrast, Czech Republic had a poor start to their qualifying campaign but then raised their game and managed to claim results when they needed to. Yes, Scotland were unlucky at the nature of the goal they conceded at Hampden but, in truth, the Czechs should have won the match much earlier and a draw was probably kind on the hosts. They then needed to beat Lithuania and did so with aplomb, winning 4-1 in Kaunas.
It is 8/11 that Czech Republic beat Montenegro on Friday and that looks like a very good bet. The home side were runners-up at Euro 96 and reached the semi finals of Euro 2004. They will believe that if they can reach the finals in 2012 then they have as good a chance as anyone of putting a good run together and history has shown them to be strong 'dark horses'.