Match № 22

The match № 22, group C, sixth tournament day

CZECH REPUBLIC – GREECE 1:2 (1:1)

January 8th, 2014, St. Petersburg, Peterburgsky SCC, 200 spectators

Referees: Oleg Sokolov, Roman Milyuchenko, Aleksandr Kuznetsov

Czech Republic: Nemrava, Honish, Takacz, Toml (c), Kulhanek, Mlchak (Shisha, 69), Danis (Schotkowski, 40), Suhan (Schick, 57), Shural, Kodesh (Heleshic, 46), Zorvan (Kodr, 80)

Head coach: Miroslav Soukup

Greece: Iliadis, Saliakas (c) (Margaritis, 88), Oikonomou, Gialamidis, Tzanoulinos, Koulouris (Piastopoulos, 86), Neumann, Athanasiadis (Toufas, 46), Deligiannidis (Kanavetas, 67), Ktistopoulos (Fasidis, 89), Vasaitis (Tsolakidis, 46)

Head coach: Theodoros Pachatouridis

Goals: Toml (3), Neumann (30), Oikonomou (76)

Yellow cards: Saliakas (34), Shural (53), Tzanoulinos (89), Margaritis (89), Kanavetas (90)

Best players: Filip Zorvan, Michael Peter Neumann

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After match comments

Head coach of the team of Czech Republic Miroslav Soukup:

– It was the match for the 2nd place in the group, so if we had won we would have been the 2nd. But after we have scored the early goal we failed the second half. We had 2 or 3 chances to score but we didn't manage, and Greece managed to level the score and to score second time. They played better in the second half, and I want to congratulate them with the 2nd place.

– Your players are a bit huger than the opponent's. Did you try to make benefit of the height advantage when choosing the tactic of playing highball passes and long passes? Or it was the decision of the players to simplify the game while you were leading?

– As I said, we started well and we had 2-3 scoring moments. But it would have been easier if we had been leading 3:0. But as the Greeks leveled the score their mood went up and our mood went down. For, you see, they are young boys. And some of them decided the draw would be a good score. And the Greeks have good individual technics, they were quick and they made good standards and scored from standards.

– Your team was leading as long as it was better in speed, in mobility. By the end the Greeks were stronger and this seems to be the reason of the final result. Is it weariness which struck the team at the third match of the tournament? The guys don't have time to recover?

– Team Greece is quite well prepared. I watched the match against Japan and they looked very well. They moved all the 90 minutes, they had enough fit. What for our players, it's not much about the body as about the head. You see, if you have the ball and you can play and make combinations it is easier for you, but if you have to fight for the ball and play without the ball you spare more energy. I've already said that we had chances to score after the score was leveled. But we had to make substitutions and we had to substitute the striker on the right side because they didn't cope.

Head coach of the team Greece Theodoros Pachatouridis:

– We let in the fast goal, but then we could calm down and began to cooperate well, transferring from defense to attack quickly. We managed to level the score and finished the match with the victory. I'm totally satisfied with the game.

– Your colleague was asked about domination of his players in height. Anyway, your team scored with the free kick. Did you pay special attention for standard schemes? free kicks and corners?

– We let in a similar goal with that one we scored later. We trained rallies of free kicks and corners, but when we let in a goal, our defenders failed and stopped playing in one moment. While scoring, they played well, as we trained it before.

– Some people thought that in the second half it would be the match till the goal. The team that could score would fall back to defense. But everything was completely different: you scored a goal and continued attacking. Did you want to finish the group stage on a good note?

– We continued to attack and didn't stop because it is our character. We scored second goal and wanted to score more, we couldn't fall back and stay in defense – it's not our style.