Czech Republic – Ireland

The Czech team will start the playoffs with a win in regulation time.

One might think that with the historical heritage of Czechoslovakia, the Czech national team should be among the leading powers in world football. However after the Czech Republic formed as a separate state it has managed to reach the World Cup only once. This happened 20 years ago, but in Germany the team could not advance beyond the group stage. The Czech squad can be considered a true specialist in continental championships. Over the last 30 years the Czechs have not missed the Euros, reached the final once and the semi-finals once more. Given such imbalance in participation in major tournaments, the Czech Republic takes qualification for the 2026 World Cup very seriously. The team is currently in good form, which was demonstrated both in the qualifying stage and in the Nations League, which took place earlier. There the Czechs managed to win their group in League B, thereby moving up to the strongest division of Europe. Ireland's team first stepped out from behind the shadow of the English national team at the end of the 1980s. Since then the Green Army has qualified for world and European championships three times, and in half of those occasions reached the knockout stage. The Irish have no other achievements in major tournaments besides making it out of the group. The winner of the Prague playoff match will face Denmark or North Macedonia. Bookmakers have identified the hosts as the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.00 on their victory. After the successful Nations League the Czech fans expected their team to go straight to the World Cup. The main rival in the group was Croatia, undergoing a generational change. However they could not compete on equal terms with the Croats, and in October last year the Czechs somehow lost to the Faroe Islands, after which Ivan Hašek was swiftly dismissed from the coaching post. Since December 2025 Miroslav Koubek, an experienced 74-year-old specialist, has been preparing the Czech team for the upcoming playoff. Ireland in the qualification for the 2026 World Cup showed itself as a serious fighter. During the tournament it managed to surpass Hungary, finishing second behind Portugal. Two of the three away matches were lost. At home Patrik Schick and his teammates have far more chances to win.