Monday’s matches begin with the current European Championship holders opening their bid to retain the crown as Spain face the Czech Republic in the afternoon kick-off.
Vicente del Bosque’s side will be defending a proud record which has seen them keep a clean sheet in their last nine tournament matches, a spell which spans 510 minutes. They go to France in strong form but having suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Georgia in their previous “warm-up” encounter, their first defeat in 12 matches.
That setback will offer the Czech Republic a glimmer of hope ahead of today’s meeting. Pavel Vrba’s side aren’t fancied to make it to the knockout stages, despite winning their qualifying group. Their poor defensive record is cited as the main concern – the Czech Republic shipped 14 goals, more than any other qualifying nation. They head into the tournament having lost their previous friendly to South Korea but sneaked a 1-0 win over Russia earlier this month.
