Powell's Relief

Czech Republic

1-5

England

Doskova 28

Westwood 61, K Smith 79, 86, Carney 81, J Scott 83,

UEFA 2009 European Women's Championship Qualifier
2pm, Sunday 28 September
ÄŽolíÄek Stadium, Bohemians FC, Prague

Hope Powell says that she was relieved to see her players respond to an honest assessment of their first-half performance against Czech Republic, but doesn't want to have to repeat herself when England face Spain on Thursday night.

England trailed third-placed Czech Republic at half-time to a Katerina Doskova header, and Powell admits that the players were reminded that they had no divineright to qualify for Euro 2009. And to their credit, the players came roaring back and ran in five goals in the process.

"I can’t repeat what I said at half-time," Powell said. "I was trying to highlight what they weren’t doing – basically pull your finger out because otherwise you may as well not bother going to Spain.

"We lacked fight, we lacked effort in the first half, and if they think they have a God-given right to qualify, nobody has. But credit to them, they responded to it and turned it around. We scored five very good goals and got our fight back.

"Credit to the Czech Republic players, I think they're a good little side. But we are better than them and going in 1-0 down, you can imagine I wasn't happy. Nor were they, to be fair.

"They're good players - sometimes they've just got to use their heads more. The difference in fitness levels showed through. Czech Republic started to fatigue, we knew that would happen, but we made it difficult for ourselves.

"I don't feel fantastic right now. We've got a lot of work on, even though we won 5-1 we could have lost 1-0."

Despite going three points clear at the top of Group One with just one game left, Powell admitted that she could not say she was happy due to the first-half showing from the Three Lions.

Powell explained: "We are delighted with the three points but I’m not happy. I can’t be happy because that first half was shocking.

"Spain will be harder than this although they know they’ve got to come at us to win, which should make it a more open game. That could be good for us. Mentally, we’ve got to be ready."

Teams

Czech Republic
1 Marcela Zborilova, 3 Petra Bertholdova, 5 Eva Smeralova (c) (15 Lucie Kladrubska 19), 6 Adela Pvonkova, 7 Veronika Pincova, 8 Lucie Heroldova, 9 Pavlina Scasna, 10 Blanka Penickova (2 Petra Divisova 58), 17 Katerina Doskova, 18 Iva Mocova (14 Veronika Hoferkova 72)

Substitutes
16 Ivana Odlasova, 4 Michaela Markova, 12 Pavla Benyrova, 13 Martina Danielova

England
1 Rachel Brown, 2 Alex Scott, 3 Casey Stoney (14 Rachel Unitt 84), 4 Jill Scott, 5 Lindsay Johnson, 6 Anita Asante, 7 Karen Carney, 8 Fara Williams, 9 Lianne Sanderson (16 Emily Westwood 46), 10 Kelly Smith (c), 11 Rachel Yankey (15 Sue Smith 64)

Substitutes
12 Eniola Aluko, 13 Siobhan Chamberlain, 17 Laura Bassett, 18 Daniel Buet

Referee
Christine Beck (Germany)

Assistant Referees
Inka Mueller, Marina Wozniak (Both Germany

Fourth Official
Jana Adamkova

Attendance
1, 054

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Czech Republic	1-5	England
Doskova 28		Westwood 61, K Smith 79, 86, Carney 81, J Scott 83,