Shilhavy: We must not think that Moldova is the outsider of the group. Soucek wants to take the euphoria to the EURO

Jaroslav Šilhavy’s team will have another match on Monday evening after a sensational win over Poland. This time against the minnows from Moldova, which is the third lowest ranked team in the FIFA ranking in the European Championship qualification. What do the national team coach and his charge Tomas Soucek have to say before the game?

Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, will host a European Championship qualifying match against the Czech Republic on Monday night. Jaroslav Šilhavy’s team is a big favourite. Especially after his charges beat Poland 3-1 in Eden.

“I am glad that we managed to win the first match with Poland by three points. But nothing is finished, now we have to confirm it with Moldova. We must not think that they are the outsider of the group. If we had succeeded, it would have been very pleasant with six points,” the former coach of, for example, Prague Slavia was quoted by ČT Sport.

However, Moldova is definitely an outsider. In the FIFA rankings, it is 174th, with only Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and San Marino being worse among European teams. Still, the Czech Republic’s opponent on Monday has already picked up one point for its draw with the Faroe Islands.

However, there is a very good mood around the national team now and it would be useless to be scared of the favourite position.

“I am glad that after the match with Poland the euphoria was not only in our dressing room, but in the whole Czech Republic. We could feel it already in the stadium from all the spectators and people in the country. But the road is long and our goal is to advance. Thenwe want to take the euphoria to the Euros, where we want to be,” Tomáš Souček is clear.

The West Ham player says the win over Poland was hugely important as they are the toughest opponents in the group. Getting three points improves the chances of qualification, but there are still seven games left.

“I saw an extremely big strength in the team. We fought for each other. We all know that we can only ever mess up our own start. I believe that the whole team will go into this game the same way they did against Poland,” Soucek added.

So we can probably expect Šilhavy’s charges to go all out from the opening whistle. The Czech Republic has played Moldova twice so far, namely in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. Karel Brückner’s side managed to win 2-0 in Chisinau, then came a 5-0 win in Olomouc.

Source: UEFA, CT Sport