Czechia and South Africa are meeting at the World Cup for the first time. Their only previous encounter came in the Confederations Cup in 1997 – it ended 2-2 and notably included a brace of goals by Vladimír Šmicer.

Czechia’s only previous World Cup match against African opposition ended in a 2-0 defeat to Ghana in 2006. Meanwhile, South Africa have lost just one of their last four World Cup matches against European teams (2-3 v Spain in 2002), winning two and drawing one.