The loss of a captain is always painful and unpleasant and the situation around Darida weighs on Šilhavy. Will he step in eventually?

The Czech team will have another big test today from 18:00 when they will try to reach the quarter-finals in front of a full stadium in Budapest. However, the Dutch are very good at this European Championship in terms of scoring goals. Jaroslav Šilhavy also has to deal with a few losses.

Most of all, Šilhavý is troubled by the health complications of captain Vladimir Darida, who was injured during Friday’s training. Consequently, he was unable to train on Saturday and it is questionable whether he will start against the Netherlands on Sunday.

“Losing a captain is always painful and unpleasant, but we will respect Vlad’s injury if it does not allow him to start. Although his possible absence from the line-up will not be decided until the day of the match, we will think of some options,” the Czech national team coach told a press conference.

Jan Bořil will not be able to play because of two yellow cards. However, the situation here will be a bit easier to resolve. “We will definitely miss him. We have several options to replace him. I believe that all players are hungry for success, whoever comes in,” continued Šilhavý.

In the evening match, the Dutch will be the clear favourite. They have scored the most goals of all the participants (8) and are widely expected to win comfortably.

“The Dutch national team is traditionally very hungry for scoring goals. You can see that as soon as they get the ball, they want to go on the attack with it. Their record so far speaks for itself. Moreover, they have had around thirty chances in these matches,” the national team coach is aware of the attacking power of the opponents.

The fact that the Netherlands had a relatively easy group and so far everything has gone well for them may be a slight advantage. It would therefore be great to surprise them with the first goal and put them under pressure. Just like they did yesterday in the Italy-Austria game.

Our main goal was to get out of the group and we did that. Now we can only surprise.

Source: UEFA, Repre football