Brabec dreaming of Czech final glory

Captain Jakub Brabec describes the Czech Republic's progress to the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final as "a dream", although the centre-back is not planning on waking up just yet.

Brabec has been a cornerstone of a side who have won all four games in Romania and has also made his presence felt in the opposition penalty area, scoring against the Republic of Ireland on Matchday 2 and setting up the Czechs' second goal in their semi-final defeat of Serbia. "This is a dream for us," Brabec said. "Of course Spain are favourites, but we want to enjoy the match and we'll give 100%. We're very happy to be here and we want to make the most of it."

The defender will be crucial to the Czechs' chances of halting opponents who have scored 13 goals in four fixtures in Romania − including five against the Republic of Ireland in the semi-final − and knows keeping the Spanish attack in check is likely to be decisive.

"We'll have to try everything to stop Spain but their whole team is dangerous; there's not one player you can pick out, you have to focus on them all," Brabec explained. "They've scored a lot of goals but hopefully we can keep them out and get a couple ourselves."

The Czechs began their last fixture positively, scoring three goals in the first 19 minutes, although Brabec is not expecting a repeat performance in Chiajna. "Obviously it would help if we could start the way we did in the semi-final; Serbia were a strong side but we dealt with them really well. We hope to attack from the start, but I doubt this game will be the same; we want to play our own way and we'll see what happens.

"We'll certainly try to play pro-active fooball,” the FK Viktoria Žižkov defender added. "We don't want to defend but we know Spain are favourites. They play great football, the best in the tournament, but we must play our own game and hopefully it'll turn out well. We're a little bit nervous but we must make sure we enjoy the game and it would be a fantasy to win it."