Spain will be looking for their first victory in the UEFA Nations League this Sunday when they travel to Generali Arena for a battle against Czech Republic. Kickoffs at 21:45 EAT.
Masking the disappointment of another failed World Cup Qualifying campaign by earning promotion to the highest division of the Nations League, the Czech Republic were indebted to a massive stroke of luck in their opening battle versus Switzerland. Czech Republic has the advantage of starting their opening two games at home and will want to make it count as their next two games will be away from home. They haven’t lost a home game in the last 10 outings.
Czech Republic will want another victory following 2-1 Nations League success over Switzerland in their last encounter. In that match, Czech Republic had 38% possession eight shots with three of them on target and a goal scored by Jan Kuchta (11′). Switzerland got 15 shots with seven of them on target and goals by Noah Okafor (44′) and Djibril Sow (58′ OG.
Meanwhile, Spain narrowly lost out on the UEFA Nations League title to France last year. But Enrique was left satisfied with his side’s endeavors in Seville on Thursday evening – the fifth draw in a row between Portugal and La Roja – and one which leaves Enrique’s men third in the embryonic standings. It was a fifth unbeaten outing for the Spaniards but their winning run of four straight games came to a halt.
Spain shared spoils 1-1 Nations League with Portugal in their previous encounter. In that match, Spain had 61% possession, 11 shots with two of them on target and a goal scored by Álvaro Morata (25′). Portugal got seven shots with two of them on target and a goal by Ricardo Horta (82′).
Czech Republic vs Spain head to head
Spain has an excellent record winning all the three head to head meetings between these two sides since 2011 while Czech Republic is yet to win.
- Spain 1-0 Czech Republic 13/06/16
- Czech Republic 0-2 Spain 07/10/11
- Spain 2-1 Czech Republic 26/03/11
Home
- Czech Republic 2-1 Switzerland
- Wales 1-1 Czech Republic
- Sweden 1-0 Czech Republic
- Czech Republic 2-0 Estonia
- Czech Republic 7-0 Kuwait
Away
- Spain 1-1 Portugal
- Spain 5-0 Iceland
- Spain 2-1 Albania
- Spain 1-0 Sweden
- Greece 0-1 Spain
Czech Republic team news
Patrik Schick and Tomas Petrasek are injured at the moment and have been ruled out of this fixture. Czech Republic will need to field their best team to stand a chance in this fixture.
Spain team news
Aymeric Laporte is recovering from an injury at the moment and has been ruled out of this encounter while David de Gea is unavailable for this game.
Prediction and odds
Czech Republic is on a two-game winless run and they had also remained so in five of their past eight fixtures while the Spaniards are on a four-fixture winning streak and they had also won seven of the past eight games.
- Spain Win
- Goals under 2.5
- Both teams to score (No)
