A breakdown delays the trip from the Czech Republic to Sweden

The Czech team, which faces Sweden on Thursday in the European qualifying playoff for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, had to postpone its trip to Stockholm for 24 hours due to a problem on the plane it was supposed to take on Tuesday.

“The Czech national team will change its schedule, it will travel to Sweden tomorrow (Wednesday) due to a failure in the plane,” spokesman Petr Sedivy said without giving details about the nature of the incident.

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The match is scheduled for Thursday, at 8:45 p.m., at the Friends Arena in Solna, on the outskirts of Stockholm. The winner will face Poland on March 29 with the passport for the World Cup in June.

The casualties, another handicap

This delay in takeoff is a new blow for the Czech team, already deprived of its star striker Patrick Schick, from Bayer Leverkusen, and full-back Vladimir Coufal (West Wam), both due to injury.

Schick is the goal man for the Czech national team, with 17 goals in 33 international matches, and also shared the title of top scorer at Euro 2020 with Cristiano Ronaldo, both with five goals.

It is not the first time in recent months that the Czechs have been affected by a breakdown in their plane. Last summer, during Euro 2020, they left Prague late for Budapest to play their round of 16 match against the Netherlands. The incident did not destabilize them as they won 2-0, precisely thanks to a goal from Schick, before falling in the quarterfinals against Denmark (1-2) despite another goal from Schick himself.