Viktoria Plzeň defeated Jablonec 4-1 in the last match of the season and secured their participation in the Champions League qualification. At the post-match press conference, head coach Miroslav Koubek answered the questions of journalists.

Coach, congratulations on your second place finish. Can we agree that it was a successful season?

Thank you, sir. I think so. We finished second, we took a step forward in the standings. We got more points than last season. And if I add to that our performance in Europe, I appreciate it even more. I really appreciate my team, it´s a heroic result. We played 55 games, including the cup games. Everybody knows that we did it with a smaller squad. So hats off to the players, to the team and its cohesion. They were able to maintain a high level of performance in a demanding schedule. Of course, there were some fluctuations, but that´s part of it.

Was it a typical “cup” performance on your part?

You could say so. We often tell ourselves that we have to show Europe. Sometimes we do it more, sometimes less. But today it was the right level. We had a tactical plan not to let the opponent play what he is strong at - fast transition football. We did that well. We started very actively, we wanted to decide as soon as possible. We were successful, the standard was good. Pavel´s goal was beautiful. Sometimes it just comes together like that. In the second half we played with more calmness, we wanted to keep the result. The first half cost us a lot of strength, but it paid off.

How much will you miss a unique player like Lukáš Kalvach?

I´ve probably never replaced him so early before. I wanted to spare him so something unnecessary wouldn´t happen. At 4:0, it was clear that he had to go down to avoid risk. Of course we´ll miss him. He´s the playmaker of the team, he sets up attacks, he drives the play, he creates. He was also effective going forward, scoring several goals. That will be hard to replace. But we´ll see. Football is like that. Everyone is replaceable in some sense. We´ll wait for new arrivals. And if we need to, we´ll sculpt something out of clay, like a sculptor. Maybe with a different structure, but we´ll build it again.

When was your worst season?

I think the most frustrating thing for me was two straight losses in the playoffs. We should have won both those games. Not that we could have, but we should have. I think my worst feeling was after the Baník game. We let them get to our backs and then we had to fight until the last round. We could have decided it earlier.

How are you looking forward to the Champions League qualification? Do you think the team has what it takes to advance to the group stage?

We´ll see. I´m mainly happy that in two seasons we have moved first from the third competition to the second, and now we have a chance to fight for the first. We are looking forward to it. It will be an interesting confrontation. We don´t have anything for sure. We know that as runner-up we have to go through at least one successful double-header. Now we´ll face stronger opponents. We won´t be going to Astana anymore, but we´ll be facing the highest quality. And these are the moments we play football for. That´s why we wanted to win today at any cost to secure second place. And we went for that result. We want to keep pushing forward and qualifying for the Champions League is another big challenge for us and we are looking forward to it.