Tag: EURO

Czech Republic national team boss Pavel Vrba has targeted Euro 2016 qualification after the nation missed out on reaching the World Cup 2014 party. Czech Republic were one of the favourites to qualify for this tournament, but they suffered badly in the qualifying stages. This led to the appointment of Vrba recently, and he has said that the national team will be playing in the same attacking sense that his team of FC Vikoria Plzeň have done before his exit in 2013. Vikoria Plzeň gained a reputation for their style of football, and Vrba wants to introduce this into the national team as well.

After their failure to reach the World Cup, Vrba has already begun work on qualifying for the European Championships. He says that the nation has witnessed a boom with regard to attacking and he wants to use this for the national team as well. Vrba will learn the opponents in the European Championship qualifying stages next week, as the draw is conducted for this by UEFA. Former manager Michal Bílek resigned in September, and Vrba was the overwhelming favourite to take over.

Vrba says that he has had the advantage of training players of almost every age. This may come in handy when dealing with stars like Petr Cech, who are at the top of the game.

“I want the national side to play as Plzeň did, to copy their successful attacking football in some way. The Czech league has seen a recent boom in attacking styles that prevail over defensive. I want to capitalise on this trend. That said, a successful coach is the one with successful results. My great advantage is that I have trained teams at all age categories: I started with the smallest footballers and gradually went up to senior level,” said Vrba.