Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice have formed a formidable partnership in the Premier League this season leading to both men being nominated for individual honours.
Tomas Soucek said: “It’s a dream of mine, yes, a proper dream – especially now I’m playing in the Premier League. That match will be a special moment for West Ham supporters because I will be playing against Declan. We’ve spoken about it – he told us that we can’t win at Wembley and we said, ‘Well, remember your last game against us!’ It’s been fun, it’s been friendly. Only the 90 minutes on the pitch will be unfriendly, perhaps.”
Soucek was referring to the last match between England and the Czech Republic, a game which ended 2-1 in favour of Soucek and his fellow Hammer Vladimir Coufal and went a long way to securing their spot at this summer’s tournament. The win in Prague for Soucek went some way to erasing the memories of his first clash against England, a 5-0 hammering by the Three Lions at Wembley in March 2019.
Tomas Soucek said: “I looked forward to that match because Wembley is an incredible stadium, but we were probably too scared by England and deserved to lose. I don’t remember that day pleasantly, but I was happy we could play against England again in the Czech Republic. We needed to support each other and not be scared. We had to believe in ourselves.”
The return clash saw the Czechs record their first win over England in international football, including contests between the Three Lions and Czechoslovakia.
Tomas Soucek said: “It was the first time we’d beaten England. They’re one of the best teams in the world, but we beat them. Because of that, we were second and reached the Euros, so it was two huge things in one game. Now I’m happy that we can play England again – I hope we won’t be scared this time. We need to look back at the home game we played against them, as the pitch is always the same. We have to play like ourselves and not look at the England team or at Wembley. We should prepare like we did at home when we beat them 2-1.”
Soucek is aiming to upset not just Rice but also his manager David Moyes before returning to West Ham for the new season
Tomas Soucek said: “I hope that our manager won’t be happy too, because we’re playing our opening game against Scotland! I hope that after those games, I can head back to West Ham just with a smile.”
