Czechia prepare for Wembley return 30 years after Euro 1996 final

Czechia are due to face England at Wembley on 6 October in the UEFA Nations League, returning to the site of their Euro 1996 final defeat by Germany. Wembley Stadium lists a 19:45 kick-off for the Tuesday fixture, which gives the Czech side another appearance at the ground 30 years after its first European Championship as an independent nation.

The teams are scheduled to meet twice in Nations League Group A3 within eight days. Their first game is in Prague on 29 September, before the return match in London. UEFA's England fixture list also shows the Wembley meeting on 6 October. The London match remains upcoming; its result and any match-day developments are still unknown.

A final that came close to a Czech title

The Wembley connection goes beyond the anniversary. Euro 1996 was the first European Championship after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. According to BBC Sport's account, few expected the Czech team to reach the final: most of its squad played in the domestic league, and several players had arranged holidays for after the group stage.

Their campaign began with a 2-0 defeat by Germany at Old Trafford. They then beat Italy 2-1 and drew 3-3 with Russia, advancing when Italy failed to beat Germany in the other group game. Patrik Berger told the BBC that the Czech players needed several minutes after the final whistle to realise they had qualified for the quarter-finals.

At the old Wembley, Berger put the Czechs ahead from the penalty spot after 59 minutes. He told the BBC he had not been the designated taker, but saw that nobody else seemed to want the ball. His thought, he said, was to hit it as hard as possible on target. Oliver Bierhoff equalised for Germany 14 minutes later, then scored the first golden goal in a major tournament final to settle the match.

For Berger, the defeat did not erase what the tournament had changed. He told the BBC that the silver medal ‘was like a gold’ because the campaign opened doors for members of the team and for the generation that followed. He said playing the tournament in England helped bring him to Liverpool, and recalled a large crowd welcoming the squad home in Prague.

The years since 1996

The Euro 1996 final remains the Czech Republic's only major tournament final as a separate nation, according to the BBC. The team reached the European Championship semi-finals in 2004 and the quarter-finals in 2012 and 2021. Prague-based football journalist Ondrej Zlamal told the BBC he considered the 2004 team's performances better than those of the 1996 finalists.

Zlamal also offered a restrained assessment of the current side. He told the BBC that Czech football no longer has as many players at top clubs as it did during that earlier generation. That is his judgment, rather than a forecast of what the team will do against England. The Wembley fixture offers a new occasion for the squad, but it cannot repeat the stakes of a European Championship final.

A new squad for the return

The upcoming games fall at the start of Santi Denia's tenure. BBC Sport describes the Spaniard as the first foreign manager of the Czech national team. His first squad, named for Nations League fixtures against Croatia, England and Spain, includes seven players with either no caps or one cap; none of those seven is younger than 22.