Viktoria Plzeň lost 1:2 to Lazio in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final. Miroslav Koubek, the head coach, evaluated the team´s performance at the post-match press conference.

What did you say about the performance in the second half when you put Lazio under overwhelming pressure?

I don´t think Lazio have been in a situation like today for a long time. We surprised them with a good performance and put them in a tight spot. It´s a pity we didn´t take advantage of the numerical superiority. Adu had the best chance at the end, but he hit the ball into the middle of the net. When the opponent is shorthanded, they automatically retreat into the penalty area, and it´s not easy to break through such a defence. More factors have to come together to help, which unfortunately we didn´t. Nevertheless, it was one of our best performances in Europe. I already said yesterday at the press conference that I was interested in the performance, and in that respect I am absolutely satisfied. Often, if you give a good performance, a good result will come. Today, unfortunately, it was not the case, but we will not feel sorry for ourselves. On the contrary, we want to build on this performance. We are halfway through the double header and anything is possible in football, we saw that clearly today.

Are you proud of your team for what they did today?

Yes, we can be proud of our performance. We managed to put a Serie A team under pressure, who are fighting for the Champions League and playing in one of the best European leagues. Italian football is at a slightly different level than Czech football, but if we as the Czech representative can perform with such demanding parameters in terms of fitness, tactics and technique and cause problems for our opponents, it´s a great sign. Of course, we lacked better finishing, we could have scored more than one goal. But if a Czech team can play like that against a top Serie A opponent, then pride is definitely in order.

How do you get the winning mentality into your players?

We have a very good team. If you look at the individual positions, we have a back line that is at national level. Rafiu Durosinmi is improving all the time, Matej Vydra has played Premier League, Cadu is a great footballer, Sampson Dweh is representing Liberia. As we gradually gain experience, we stop being afraid of anyone and believe in ourselves. It can sometimes be difficult away, but at home we are very uncomfortable for any opponent from a top competition, which is an important realisation. We have learned to play this type of games, we have quality, but of course we also have gaps. Today it was visible in converting chances. We should have scored more than one goal.

Will it be difficult to get the team back to their mental state after such a tough game?

We´ll rely on performance. Every player knows that we played well, and we can build on that. It would have been much worse if we had lost 1:2 and never got out of our own half. The result may leave us with some bitterness, but when we sleep, the feeling will prevail that we gave a good performance that we can build on.