A slut: Third place is disappointing. I hope we don’t fly to Glasgow again

Vladimír Coufal is responsible for the Czech national team’s progress to the Euro 8 finals, which was achieved again after nine years. Still, he takes the final third place as a disappointment. What did his club captain Declan Rice have to say about the match against England and how does he feel about having to travel by air from Prague for every game?

When the Czech national team finished last in their group at Euro 2016 five years ago and crashed out of the tournament in the quickest possible way, Vladimír Coufal was not there. As a Slovan Liberec player, he was probably enjoying a holiday instead.

At the time, few probably thought that the Ostrava native would be one of the mainstays of the national team at the next European Championship. However, the modest right-back has made incredible progress and now, as a member of the Premier League starting line-up, he has already played a big part in making the Czech Republic one of the 16 best footballing countries in Europe.

Indeed, as you are well aware, they made it to the eighth round despite Tuesday’s defeat to one of the tournament’s biggest favourites, England. “I was really looking forward to London. Every match at Wembley is a holiday for any Czech player. It’s not every day you play in only one of the most famous stadiums, and against England. It’ s unbelievable,” Coufal admitted.

“I have to say that even though we lost, I enjoyed the game. I could tell the players were taking me in. They come up to me on the pitch, high-five me, talk to me after the game,” the Czech star revealed what club affiliation means in the eyes of the island footballers.

In addition, Coufal, like Tomas Soucek, played against his club captain Declan Rice for the first time since his transfer to West Ham, with whom both Czechs also discussed the match after its end.

“We talked with Declan and Tomas for almost half an hour. He (Declan Rice) said that they discussed our game a lot, that it was a tough game and that they were happy with the 1:0 win, which is a credit to Czech football. I have a good feeling about it,” revealed the 28-year-old defender.

His joy was not spoiled by the unlucky goal scored in the 12th minute by Sterling after a Grealish centre. “Holi (Tomas Holes) was there, I tried to double it. I think Grealish had a lot more better actions in the game. I was a little bit off the centre, Sterling was there uncovered and unfortunately he scored,” Coufal narrated the whole situation through his eyes.

Because of the defeat and the Croatian win by two goals, Šilhavy’s team dropped to third place. They will therefore not know their opponents for the eighth round until after all the matches of the Euro regular season are finished, late on Wednesday evening.

The most likely option is the Netherlands, who the Czechs would face this Sunday in Budapest. Such a match would take place if at least one of the Ukraine-Finland pairing advances to the knockout stage of the tournament as the third team in its group.

Otherwise, the national team would face the first team of Group E (any of the foursome of Sweden, Spain, Poland, Slovakia) and another trip to Glasgow.

“We will see who our opponents will be. Of course we knew that if we hadn’t lost we could have finished first. We wanted to finish better than third, because from second place we would play in Copenhagen. That’s certainly more pleasant than Glasgow. I have to say I’m glad we got promoted, but I’m a bit disappointed that it’s only from third place. Thejumpers made it a bit difficult for us,” Coufal admitted.

Sources:: Fotbal.cz, iSport, Vladimír Coufal