Mental strength crucial for happy Hřebík

Jaroslav Hřebík was thankful for his side's mental strength as the Czech Republic withstood a spirited Serbia comeback to reach their first UEFA European Under-19 Championship final. Three up after only 19 minutes, the Czechs were pegged back to 3-2 before half an hour had been played, and the clinching fourth goal did not arrive until stoppage time, although Serbia's Dejan Govedarica acknowledged his charges had lost to the better team.

Jaroslav Hřebík, Czech Republic coach
Football is about goals; we led 3-0 and had other chances, and suddenly we gave them the opportunity to get back into the game. Their first goal came from our mistake, and suddenly they were very, very hungry – we gave them the taste for it. When a team leads 3-0 and it gets back to 3-2 usually they lose, but we were very strong at the end of the first half, we stood up to them and in the second half we played as we want. In the end we won and we're so, so happy.

When Serbia scored their second goal that was a shock for us because a few minutes before maybe our players saw the final – suddenly everything had changed. A weak team would have lost then. At half-time we talked about the basics, I asked the players how they feel and what they think when they are winning a game 1-0 at half-time and they said they are happy – so I said it was the same situation. We had to play our game, and stick to our plan, and we knew we would win.

We prepared for this game and wanted to take the chance to get to the final. We scored from attacks which we’d worked on in practice. I'm so pleased we kept our heads when it went back to 3-2, maybe that was the most important part of the game. We've gone through this by steps; first the elite round, then the group matches when we had to come from behind twice, then today again we had stress to deal with. For the final we'll play our game with maximum power and concentration. We want to enjoy the game – that's what I told the players before this match too – and show our best.

Dejan Govedarica, Serbia coach
Congratulations to the Czechs. We did our best today, and we didn't succeed – they were better than us, especially in the first half, and they're deservedly going to the final. It was a strange, strange first 30 minutes – five goals was good for the Czech Republic as they got more of them but it was hard for us to get back into it. It was a great game for the spectators.

This is the second time this week we've conceded three goals in the first 20 minutes, as we did the same against Spain. It makes life difficult for us but we did really well to get back into it, then we couldn't find an equaliser and they got the fourth goal in the last few minutes. This tournament has still been a big success for us, and getting to the semi-finals was a really big achievement. In the end, though, we didn't have the strength to cope with the Czechs and they deserve to go to the final.