Baroš positive ahead of Greek test

Milan Baroš became a household name when he ended UEFA EURO 2004 as the tournament's top scorer. Eight years later the striker is a mainstay of the Czech Republic side, and, despite his nation making a disappointing start to their fifth successive EURO, Baroš told UEFA.com Michal Bílek's team can still make progress, starting with victory against Greece in Wroclaw on Tuesday.

On losing to Russia
On [Saturday] afternoon we analysed the match with Russia, and by the evening we started to concentrate on the game against Greece, so it's definitely good for us that the next match is on Tuesday and that we can quickly rectify our mistakes from Friday. The scoreline looks scary, but if you look at the stats the match was quite even. We started well, and they punished us on the break, which was how we wanted to play.

They actually punished us with the weapons we wanted to use against them, and it was already 2-0 by something like the 25th minute. When we got back into the match in the second half it was hard, we took a lot of risks, we opened ourselves up, leaving a lot of room, and they punished us with another two goals. So we must learn a lesson from this and play more as a team and wait for the right chance, and not play so-called gung-ho football.

On bouncing back from defeat
I think it's useless to panic and be affected by criticism, or be in low spirits. The 4-1 scoreline is frightening, but nothing's lost yet. We still have two matches and we still have it in our own hands. Greece won't be easy opponents. They almost succeeded in turning the match around against Poland playing with ten men. They actually won their qualifying group, and every year they are tough opponents at tournaments. Plus, we don't have good results against them historically, yet we must forget that and go into the match trying to win.

On the approach to the Greece game
It's not quite must-win. There's still one more match, and Greece also drew their last game. What's more, their final one is against Russia, so we can also qualify from this group with four points. It will definitely be very important for us to win the match, and if we manage to get three points it will be fantastic. It means we'll go into the last game more calmly.

If we don't manage to win and draw instead, the last match [against Poland] will be decisive. It will be hard but we can still make it. I think [the tactics] are up to the coach. He knows very well what he's doing. He's been with us for two and a half years and he knows the team. I think he's an intelligent person. He'll definitely come up with the right tactics and motivate us for the Greece match.

On the welcome in Wroclaw
The Polish fans are incredible. Here in the city they have been fantastic. They gave us a nice welcome, and they've been supporting us in a certain way. They will probably be cheering for us in the first two matches. Their friendliness, their enthusiasm for football motivates and encourages us. It was very nice when they came to the training ground and were clapping us. They were in a positive mood, and this definitely pumped us up so we didn't feel gloomy any more. We would like to thank the people who came here after the match. It definitely helped us.

On playing in front of a packed stadium
You're immersed in the game and so perhaps you don't perceive everything that's going on around you. You're concentrating on the match, and the only thoughts you have are about football. The feelings after winning a game or scoring a goal are great. I think every boy dreams about winning a match at a EURO, for instance, or scoring a goal at a EURO or a World Cup, at these big international tournaments. And the feelings you have afterwards are fantastic, you feel a wave of happiness, and moreover when it's a winning goal or an equaliser, you feel that twice as much.

When you lose, the feelings are bad, you are sad, you don't feel like talking and laughing. But that goes away very quickly because another match comes along, and you have the desire to stop that feeling and win the next one.