Czechs crush Ukraine as Rezek earns penalty again

THE Czech Republic cruised to victory over Euro 2012 co-host Ukraine in a friendly last night, as Jan Rezek – the player at the centre of the cheating controversy against Scotland at Hampden on Saturday – went down in the box again to give his team an early penalty, then later scored his first international goal

Czech full-back Michal Kadlec made it 1-0 from the penalty spot four minutes into the match after Vyacheslav Shevchuk brought down Rezek in the area. Rezek had admitted after the 2-2 draw with Scotland that there had been no contact with Danny Wilson when he tumbled in the box to secure the Czechs their second equaliser.

Kadlec doubled the lead eight minutes later with a header from Daniel Pudil’s corner for his fifth goal in his 28th international appearance.

Rezek and Daniel Kolar struck in the first six minutes of the second-half for their first international goals.

“We have to be satisfied with both the result and our performance,” Czech Republic coach Michal Bilek said. “We wanted our players to do their best from the start.”

Ukraine’s best chance came six minutes before the final whistle with a close-range shot by substitute Anton Shinder that hit the crossbar.

The victory was a confidence boost for the Czechs ahead of their closing two games against Spain and Lithuania in qualifying for the 2012 European Championship finals, which Ukraine are co-hosting with Poland.

The Czechs are in a strong position to reach the play-offs via second spot in Group I.

World and European champions Spain, who were playing Liechtenstein late last night, are virtually certain to win the group.

For Ukraine, it was a fourth consecutive defeat after losses to Sweden, France and Uruguay.

Czech Republic: Drobny, Pospech (Selassie, 60), Sivok, Kadlec, Pudil, Rezek (Petrzela, 71), Kolar (Vacek, 68), Hubschman, Plasil, Pilar, Pekhart (Lafata, 58).

Ukraine: Dykan, Kucher, Butko, Krivcov, Shevchuk (Fedetskiy, 76), Gai (Rakickiy, 46), Yarmolenko (Kalynychenko, 86), Milevskiy (Seleznov, 57), Tymoshchuk, Konoplyanka (Voronin, 52), Devic (Shinder, 80).

l The Netherlands closed in on qualification for Euro 2012 with a 2-0 win away to Mixu Paatelainen’s Finland last night. Kevin Strootman latched on to Wesley Sneijder’s chipped through ball to scored the first goal with a delicately placed flick in the 30th minute. Finland’s Perparim Hetemaj was sent off for a second booking in the 60th before Luuk de Jong wrapped up the win in injury time.