"EURO 2004 qualifier: Czech Rep ..." a Prague Travel Page by HORSCHECK

On Wednesday September 10th of 2003 the UEFA EURO 2004 qualifier match between the Czech Republic and the Netherlands took place at the Toyota Arena (Sparta Stadium) in Prag. The stadium is an all-seater arena with a capacity of about 20.000.

The match was said to be sold out 2 hours after the tickets went on sale. Nevertheless, I went to the stadium hoping to get a ticket for the match on the black market.
There were many touts offering tickets between 1000 and 2000 CZK. The original price categories varied between 400 and 1200 CZK. After I negotiated with a few touts, a Czech guy came to me and asked me if I were a real football fan. I said yes, and after a bit of small talk he gave me a ticket of the most expensive category for free ... :o)

1 Cech, 2 Grygera, 3 Ujfalusi, 4 Galasek, 5 Bolf,
7 Smicer, 8 Poborsky, 9 Koller, 10 Rosicky,
11 Nedved, 13 Jiranek

Coach: Karel Bruckner

1 van der Sar, 2 Reiziger, 3 Stam, 4 Frank de Boer, 5 Cocu,
6 Van Bommel, 7 Overmars, 8 Davids, 9 Van Nistelrooij,
10 Kluivert, 11 Van der Vaart

Coach: Dick Advocaat

1:0 Jan Koller (penalty) (15.)
2:0 Karel Poborsky (37.)
2:1 Rafael van der Vaart (60.)
3:1 Milan Baros (90.)

Dutch player Edgar Davids was sent off by a red-yellow card in the 14. minute. After the 3:1 victory the Czechs were already qualified for the EURO 2004 in Portugal.

The next scheduled match in the wonderful Toyota Arena of Sparta Prag was the EURO Champions-League match between AC Sparta Praha and FC Chelsea London.