Group A continues with Europe taking on Africa at Atlanta Stadium in the second fixture for both teams.
Group A
Friday, 19 June | Atlanta Stadium
Kick-off time
00:00 (GMT+8)
The match
Czech Republic and South Africa will contest a first-ever World Cup meeting in their second Group A fixture. Both sides will be looking to bounce back after opening day defeats to Korea Republic and co-hosts Mexico. Miroslav Koubek’s side can avoid elmination by overcoming their opponents and hoping Korea Republic cannot beat Mexico. Bafana Bafana meanwhile need to defeat Czech Republic and hope Mexico cannot beat Korea Republic.
Czech Republic possible starting XI
Kovar; Coufal, Chaloupek, Hranac, Krejci, Zeleny; Soucek, Provod; Sojka, Sulc, Schick
South Africa possible starting XI
Williams; Mudau, Okon, Mbokazi, Sibisi, Modiba; Mokoena, Mbatha, Adams; Foster, Rayners
What they said…
“We’re in the same situation as our opponent after the first game. And that makes things more complicated. But we’ll do everything we can to win. We’re facing a different opponent, and we’re going to adapt our strategy to this new opponent. We know they’re very good at applying high pressure. They’re a different opponent than the one we faced last week. We’re going to try to focus on better combinations and on maintaining possession. We’re going to concentrate on creating dangerous scoring opportunities”. Miroslav Koubek, Czech Republic coach
“We know the team we’re going to face very well. We’ve been preparing all week by watching videos”. Ladislav Krejci, Czech Republic captain
“The most important thing is to analyse what we did wrong against Mexico. Now we are going to face a totally different opponent. Czech Republic has a tough physical team. We know what we did wrong, and the most important thing is that the players know it too”. Hugo Broos, South Africa coach
“We’ve come a long way to get here. Nobody has given us anything for free. It’s taken years of sacrifice. We kept moving forward, stayed calm, and when the coach took over, he said we were going to be in the World Cup. We don’t want to let anyone down. We’ve worked incredibly hard, and we’ve seen what it means to all of South Africa for us to be a part of this”. Ronwen Williams, South Africa captain
Atlanta Stadium
Standing at over 300 feet high, Atlanta Stadium features a one-of-a-kind retractable roof, first-of-its-kind 360-degree halo video display and has been lauded as the most sustainable stadium in the world. Atlanta United of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Football League’s (NFL) Atlanta Falcons call the ground home. Five World Cup group-stage fixtures – featuring Spain, Cabo Verde, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Haiti, Congo DR and Uzbekistan – will be contested at the striking, state-of-the-art arena, as well one Round of 32 tie, a Round of 16 match and a semi-final clash.