Tami sets new goal for Swiss semi-finalists

Switzerland coach Pierluigi Tami said anything is now possible for his team after they equalled the country's best performance at the UEFA European Under-21 Championship by reaching the semi-finals tonight.

There was a more mixed reaction from Belarus coach Georgi Kondratyev given his side sneaked into the last four as Group A's second-placed team despite losing 3-0 to the rampant Swiss in Aarhus.

Pierluigi Tami, Switzerland coach
We are delighted to have achieved our first goal – we really wanted to get to the semi-finals and we thoroughly deserve to be there. I am thrilled with our progress. Everything is possible now. We have a big opportunity and we want to take it by reaching the final. We will take whichever team we play next very seriously. From the start I've said I have a great squad of 23 players. We have lost one player to suspension [Granit Xhaka] , but I wasn't going to pick my team tonight based on possible suspensions.

After the first goal it became quite physical and the team were a bit nervous but once we got the second we looked impressive and were fully in control. Tomorrow we start to prepare for the semi-finals. I won't go to the England-Czech Republic game but we'll have scouts watching the matches tomorrow.

We have to enjoy the victory, then we'll check on the players tomorrow. The only certainty looking forward is that Xhaka is suspended. Then, of course, we'll discover who our next opponents are. It will be an advantage to have one more day's rest. Everything is open to us now – we have already shown our strength by getting to the semi-final. At this stage you also look at the nerves and physical state of the players, which will also decide how far we can go. But I think this team has the capacity to reach the final.

Georgi Kondratyev, Belarus coach
As I've already said, the teams have been very well matched in our group. Even tonight's match proved it. My team did well going forward in the first half and the performance itself was very good. Unfortunately two stupid mistakes at the back led to us conceding goals. The second half, until the absolutely unnecessary dismissal [of Sergei Matveychik], was also a solid display. After that, obviously it was very difficult for us to play against such a technical team. Switzerland started to outplay us.

When you are losing 2-0 and you are one man down, you understand that there is no way you can save the game. So we just hoped that Iceland would perform and today they gave us a great present by beating Denmark [3-1]. We have to thank them for that. At the same time, though, we defeated them in the first game so you could say fortune favoured the brave. We earned our luck maybe. We'll try to analyse the group stage and we'll see which positives we can take into the semi-finals But first of all we need to do something with our defence. Our defending through the middle has been poor.