Provod isn’t hiding his excitement about returning to the national team, he is not afraid of the Swiss and believes in winning

Lukáš Provod, Ondřej Lingr and Patrizio Stronati have been added to the Czech national team for the 2022 Nations League match against Switzerland. The former spoke about the upcoming match in an interview.

Provod was an integral part of the national team a year and a half back. In the spring of 2020, he scored an important goal in the World Cup qualifier with Belgium (1: 1), and after the season he was named the best player of the Fortuna Liga.

However, he did not finish the season because he was injured in a league match against Olomouc. Through no fault of his own, he misstepped and was out for more than a year. He missed out on the Conference League and, most importantly, the European Championship.

“I was extremely sorry that I missed the Euro because I was looking forward to it. I think I would have gone to the Euros after the season I played, which was very good. But there was nothing I could do. I watched it on TV at home and cheered. I was so happy for the guys that they did so well. They did the results, which for me was fantastic,” Provod told YouTube of the national team.

He only started to play fully this August, and although he started a couple of times in the spring, he was absent for a few games each time because of his knee. In any case, he hasn’t been in such a good shape to be included in the initial nomination.

Jakub Jankto and Lukáš Masopust got injured and the team was looking for a sure thing. The national team has a lot to make up for, on Saturday they lost 0:4 to Portugal on home soil.

“I know the boys and the implementation team. I am very happy that I could join. I think it will be no problem. We will just build up and prepare well for the match,” continued the left-footed midfielder.

The Czechs held the favourite at first, they could have taken the lead after Antonín Barák’s header, but then the Portuguese pulled away with two goals and after Patrik Schick’s missed penalty it was basically over at half-time. After the change of sides it was only a question of how many goals the visitors would add.

In a match played in parallel, the Swiss won 2-1 in Spain and surprisingly jumped to third place in the table. This means that the Czechs have to win in Switzerland on Tuesday to save their place among the elite. Otherwise, they will be relegated back to the B group.

“It’s a very difficult task, because as we saw, the Swiss won in Spain. That’s almost a superhuman feat. On the other hand, I think the teams are terribly evenly matched, anyone can win against anyone. So I believe we will do a good performance and we will achieve our goal,” Provod added.

Source