Fittingly, with Christian Benteke’s Belgium team not playing tonight in international week, it was left to Aston Villa’s new striker Czech international Libor Kovák to impress, when he opened the scoring in the 19th minute to put the Czech’s a goal-up away to Italy and of course, honour Stan Petrov with the goal’s timing in the process. It marks the striker’s second goal in only his fifth international appearance for the Czech Republic.
The goal was a smart finish, taking a cross first-time, to bury it past Buffon, as you can see from the below video:
Unfortunately for the Czechs, Italy struck back with two goals within a three-minute period, early in the second half, including a Balotelli winner from the penalty spot. Still, the impressive finish from Kozák against one of the best defences in Europe is a good early sign that Paul Lambert has done a nice bit of business for Villa with the Czech forward.
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