PREVIEW: Czechia look to get up and running against South Africa | OneFootball

Jack Buchanan, Chief EFL Editor

Czechia will be hoping to get their tournament up and running today when they take on South Africa, with both sides having lost their opening game against South Korea and Mexico, respectively.

Czechia will be the firm favourites going into this, having only narrowly lost to South Korea, whilst South Africa were convincingly outclassed by Mexico, even when taking their two red cards into consideration. Bafana Bafana’s central midfielder, Sphephelo Sithole, was the first to be dismissed, just four minutes into the second half, and then Themba Zwane followed in his footsteps in the 84th minute, both were straight red cards, which means the pair will be unavaiable for the remainder of the group stage.

The FIFA World Rankings back up the fact that Czechia are the favourite; they are currently ranked 40th, whilst South Africa find themselves 60th. South Africa are winless in their last five matches, which they will need to change tonight if they wish to keep their World Cup dream alive. By contrast, Czechia were unbeaten in eight matches before their clash with South Korea last week.

The game is scheduled to kick-off at 5pm (UK time).