Ireland's recent results against Canada and Brazil may have provided a lift for an Irish side still licking its wounds in the aftermath of a tame exit from the European Championships, but the Czech side they will face tonight might still teach them a thing or two about bouncing back from disappointment.

Having finished second to a rather ordinary Danish side in the qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, this evening's visitors then lost their play-off to the distinctly mediocre Belgians. Since then, however, they have gone 20 games without losing.

A Dutch side that subsequently destroyed the Scots to reach Euro 2004 were their most notable victims in the competition's qualifying tournament proper, and Karel Bruckner's side are gearing themselves up for a finals tournament in which they will be much more than well-fancied outsiders.

Their recent performances at major championships have been, well, chequered, but this looks a more accomplished side than the one which went to England in 1996 and, before losing to Germany on a golden goal in the final, sent Italy, Portugal and France home from the tournament earlier than any of the three had expected.

At 23, Pavel Nedved showed immense promise at that tournament and the Juventus midfielder has more than delivered in the eight intervening years, steadily improving until he gained widespread recognition as one of Europe's leading talents. Back then he was emerging as the team's creative force, but in recent years he has been its heart and soul, providing leadership, inspiration and genius from the centre of midfield.

In a recent poll of international coaches, Nedved finished fourth to Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Ronaldo, but it is hard to imagine how any of the three could do more to make the best of this Czech side. And after watching tapes of the 31-year-old in action against Holland and Italy, Brian Kerr admitted yesterday that it was easy to see how 14 of the coaches polled had rated the midfielder as the best in the world.

He has suggested that he will retire from the game when his contract with the Serie A giants expires, but for the moment Nedved is the only survivor of the side that lost to Germany at Wembley in a group which is increasingly dominated by young talent.

The likes of Petr Cech, the Rennes goalkeeper soon to arrive at Stamford Bridge, Zdenek Grygera of Ajax and Liverpool's Milan Barros have all sprung to prominence over the past couple of years. Under the guidance of Bruckner, indeed, a string of new faces have been introduced, providing the finishing touches to an already strong squad.

"We are lucky to have good quality players," said Bruckner yesterday. "When you add will and discipline you get good results, but the record can go at any stage, we know that in every game it is a possibility."

Commenting on his contribution to the side's emergence as one of the world's top 10 over the past couple of seasons, Bruckner smiled modestly and observed: "There are no secret recipes. I have only one secret recipe," he beamed, "but that is for pies, not football."

At one stage Jan Koller might have been considered the team's secret weapon, but even if he had not established a scoring record that is comfortably better than a goal every other game, the giant striker would presumably have started showing up on aerial reconnaissance photographs quite some time ago.

While Bruckner describes Nedved as the team's commander, he observes that Koller is, "our first attacker and highly effective in our offensive plan".

Certainly the Irish centre backs have been singing the 30-year-old's praises, with Gary Doherty and Kenny Cunningham making the point that there is much more to the Dortmund player's game than we have come to expect of your average "target man".

"Of course, he has an obvious advantage in terms of height," said the Irish skipper yesterday, "but I think he's a much better player than some people give him credit for. He holds the ball up well and links up very effectively with players around him.

"What we can't afford to do is to get into a physical battle with him, we'll have to be a bit more clever than that. But we will have to find a way of squeezing him, of keeping him away from the box as much as possible. The aim has to be to try to affect him in such a way that he's not able to dictate play for them from around the area."