Boys are determined to fight England for promotion, says Czech national team coach after advancing to EMF EURO 2022 play-offs

Our footballers finished the EMF EURO 2022 qualification phase in Slovakia in second place and are now in the play-offs. We asked Stanislav Bejda, the coach of the Czech national small-sided football team, how everything is going so far.

Mr. Coach, the qualification phase of the European Championship in Košice is over, you managed to advance from second place to the play-offs in a strong competition, congratulations. You had France, Moldova and Serbia in your group, you had three very difficult matches, how did you play?

We managed to advance and in general I can say that the teams have moved on again, which is evident from our team’s results. Perhaps only in the Moldova game did we play what we wanted to play, but France and Serbia didn’t quite let us into our game.

I’m sure it’s influenced by many factors, we were familiarising ourselves with the environment in the first game against France and experimenting a bit in the third. And unfortunately we are playing without Bier in this championship and the absence of Koudelka is also noticeable.

After this qualification phase of the tournament, what is the state of our team, health-wise, adaptation-wise and mentally?

The important thing is that we advanced, the team is completed by Lukáš Zrzavý instead of Ondra Bír. We have some minor injuries and a few players got back together a week before the championship, but at the moment they are all ready to start. And after a poor performance against the Serbs, the boys are determined to fight for promotion against England.

How do you evaluate the playing facilities at the Steel Arena in Košice? The playing surface, the facilities, the atmosphere, the fans, the organizing team in Slovakia?

The playing facilities of the arena are great, the surface and conditions take some getting used to, but the environment of the auditorium etc. makes it tempting to go and play and enjoy football. So we all enjoy it and when you add the spectator support it’s great.

What kind of footwear did our players decide to wear for the game? What type suits them best for UMT at the Steel Arena?

The guys mostly play in cleats or turf shoes, it’s individual, but I’ve registered with the French and other teams in salsas.

In terms of tournament organization, how are you accommodated, how did the organizer take care of your team? What do you rate positively, what less so?

The organization is going well, the accommodation on the main street is very good, there were a few small hiccups – different numbers on the roster, the bus didn’t come for us (note 121 ELITE Sports, yes, it happened on the first playing day before the match against France) and we couldn’t attend the pre-match training, but otherwise everything was great.

During the qualifying phase of the European Championships, which saw 24 teams and their 360 players enter, organised into six groups, you could see competitive teams after a huge three-year break. After this hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, how do you see these teams moving forward?

Most of the teams have moved on again, both tactically and they have definitely worked on their player selection, which results in a higher level. At every championship there have been more weaker teams, but this year all the Baltic teams are strong, traditionally Romania, Hungary and a very strong Ukraine. Even the big European countries like England and France are very strong, it will be difficult to break through.

The management of the Czech Republic’s national minor football team incorporated a 20-year-old youngster, Jindra Novotny, into the starting line-up, first as a substitute, after Ondrej Moucka’s unfortunate injury in the training camp before the European Championship. How do you evaluate Jindra’s performance after three games and how is this striker settling in his new national A-team?

Jindra earned the nomination with his performances in the U23 Staropramen and Staropramen adult team and he is supposed to be such a secret weapon, which he confirmed in the first game against France. So I hope he will calm down a bit more, add more goals and be valid.

I know I can’t expect a complete open answer to this question, but I’ll ask you, what is your strategy for the playoffs?

The strategy for all the games is to succeed with an active game and impose ours on the opponent, to be better on the ball, to force the opponent to make mistakes, to be quality and accurate in combination, concentrated in standard situations and also defensive responsibility is important, we certainly don’t want to wait for what a quality opponent will do to us.

Do you have and can you give information about the injury of our number one goalkeeper Ondrej Bíra?

Ondra Biro unfortunately has a torn muscle and will be out for three weeks.