Holders sunk by Swiss

Switzerland held their nerves to wipe out a first-leg deficit and duly eliminate the Czech Republic in front of their own fans on penalty kicks - despite having a player sent off.

Costly misses
After defeat by the odd goal in three on home soil on Saturday, Switzerland produced a 2-1 away victory of their own and although Roland Schwegler hit a post with the first Swiss spot-kick, misses by Czechs Václav Sverkos and Martin Kolár ensured Switzerland qualified.

Pin-point cross
Marco Streller was the man dismissed for the visitors on 64 minutes, by which point they were already trailing 1-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate. Jirí Koubský, who scored the Czech Republic's winning goal in Basel at the weekend, headed in a pinpoint Petr Musil cross just before the hour mark to give Switzerland a seemingly impossible task.

Hero to villain
Visiting captain Mario Eggimann gave his side hope with a goal 15 minutes from time and, perhaps wary of their opponents' tremendous record outside Switzerland - they won three and drew one of their four qualifiers away from home - the Czech Republic began to panic. Koubský promptly turned from hero to villain, heading into his own net to level the scores on aggregate.

Dramatic shoot-out
A goalless period of extra time was followed by the dramatic shoot-out - and the Czech Republic, who won the tournament in 2002, bowed out. Disappointed coach Werner Licka said: "We did not concede a single goal from dead-ball positions within the whole group stage, but we let in two such goals today."