Viktoria Plzeň did not improve their Europa´s best when they conceded a goal in extra time of the round-of-16 match. The coach Pavel Vrba thanked his team after the match for the overall presentation in the Europa League.

„I have to evaluate the Europa League very positively. We won the group stage and we were fighting for the quarterfinals until the very last moment. Today´s match showed our power and I wish to continue performing it in Europe again,“ he said after the end of the match against Sporting CP. „We all will remember this match for a long time. I´m so proud of my players because their today´s performance was heroic. I believe we´ll be as successful in the upcoming spring seasons again,“ he added.

Although many people did not believe Viktoria could win this fight, they partly defied their destiny. „It´s possible to creat a high-quality team of Czech and Slovakian players. I´m very satisfied with the result as well as with the fact we can play attractive football with these players. All of them played excellently,“ the coach admitted.

Although he avoided evaluating individual performances of each player, he paid tribute to the scorer of the match Marek Bakoš. „Marek helped us win the group when he scored two goals to Larnaca. Today he showed again how experienced he is. These players deserve to be rendered homage for how they train, how they behave and how they are ready to jump in the match in situations we´ve seen today,“ Vrba spoke highly.