His debut with the national team of Poland was really bitter for him, he had to bite a 1:3 defeat in Eden. The Czech national team quickly got into a two-goal lead, which broke the psyche of its northern neighbor. And the Portuguese coach admitted after the final whistle that the home team won deservedly.
The Czechs prepared fantastically for their first qualifying match and Ladislav Krejčí scored the fastest goal of the Czech national team in individual history. Within the opening three minutes, they already led by two goals, when shortly after Krejčí, his club partner Tomáš Čvančara also made his mark.
“I have to admit that the Czech national team deservedly won. I am sad. I admit that nothing went according to plan, and I’m not just talking about the beginning. When you get two goals like that in the first few minutes, it’s hard to think how you’re going to play from there. Hard to believe it happened so fast. It was very difficult to get back into the game, the first minutes caught us by surprise.” lamented Santos in the post-match press conference.
“At the same time, we knew that the Czechs play like this, that it is typical for them. We watched the matches of the Czech team, but the home team caught us by surprise. We managed to keep the ball at all, the Czechs were putting us under pressure. The tactical options didn’t work out for us, I take responsibility for it. We have to analyze it and handle the next match against Albania much better.” added the experienced strategist.
