Cyprus were thrashed 5-0 by the Czech Republic in their opening game of the Uefa under-17 championship at the AEK Arena in Larnaca on Monday night. A young crowd of 5,417 turned out in Larnaca to see the hosts’ opener, but Cyprus found themselves under the cosh from the start, with the Czech Republic having the ball in the net inside two minutes from a corner, only to see it ruled out for a foul in the box. The Czech Republic asserted their dominance early on, winning a series of corners in the opening exchanges, though took 12 minutes to have their first shot on target, with Josef Kolarik forcing Cypriot goalkeeper Savvas Michos into a save low to his right .
From that moment, Cyprus began to grow into the game. They had their first clear-cut chance a quarter of an hour in when Chrysis Evangelou played a beautiful cross-field pass to Petros Ioannou on the left wing. Ioannou found Stavros Dimosthenous, whose shot was blazed over the crossbar.
Evangelou and Ioannou combined once more five minutes later, with the former playing the latter clean through on goal. Ioannou checked back to set the ball to Charalampos Michalas, but Michalas was unable to sort his feet out and ended up floating the ball high into the stand behind the goal. When the Czech Republic’s first goal eventually came after 26 minutes, it was arguably against the run of play .
However, the finish itself was a real touch of quality, with Josef Kolarik finding the perfect angle from the edge of the box to sli.
