Coaches accept differing fates

Germany cruised to victory against Serbia and Montenegro thanks to a first-half Manuel Fischer hat-trick to go through to the UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-finals as Group B winners, to face Russia. Behind the Germans on goal difference, and facing Spain on Thursday, are the Czech Republic, 3-1 victors against Belgium. However Tomáš Necid, who scored two Czechs goals to go into the joint-lead in the finals goalscoring table with four, will not play against Spain after receiving his second booking of the tournament. uefa.com hears reaction from all four coaches.

GERMANY 4-0 SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
Bernd Stöber, Germany coach
I am very satisfied with the performance of the team, they deserved the win. Before the game it was a pressure situation, anything could have happened, and I compliment my team for dealing with this pressure very well. Scoring early was a good thing; they felt secure and could play their game. Fischer is a very dangerous striker and it is not the first time that he has scored several goals, that he has scored important goals. He is a player for the big situation. I will not try to keep their feet on the ground, we are playing so well, it is best it stays this way.

Sas Medin, Serbia and Montenegro coach
Germany deserved it. What decided the game was the first goal, our goalkeeper made a mistake. After the second goal our team was down. Germany proved today that they are the best team in the tournament and I think they will win the title. We lost our chances in the first two games and after that it was very difficult to recover. We missed so many chances against the Czechs and Belgium. But we are happy to have been here and we it was a success to qualify.

CZECH REPUBLIC 3-1 BELGIUM
Jakub Dovalil, Czech Republic coach
I'm very happy. We played good football and better than in the two last games. Being in the last four was our goal before the tournament started. It's a pity that Tomáš Necid won't play in the semi-final. For us and for him of course. He's scored four goals, he's excellent in the penalty area. But we have two other tall strikers that can replace him. I said that I have 18 good players, it's time to show it. But of course, it's more difficult to play against Spain without your best striker. But one of their strikers had to go home, so now we're even! More seriously, we are now in the best four and the game against Spain will be a very good experience for my team.

Eric Abrams, Belgium coach
When you take the whole game, the Czech victory is deserved. When they were leading 1-0, we had a good opportunity to equalise, which could have changed the game. The first and second goals were mistakes by our defenders, but I have to say that our opponents were very good and very physical. We believed for a long time that we had the chance to equalise and maybe win. The second came very early in the second half, but I'm happy we scored one goal at the end. For the rest of this tournament, Spain are favourites. But we must not forget that the Czech Republic beat France and Turkey to get here. I would see a Germany-Spain final, but it will be interesting to see how Spain can handle such a physical and athletic team like Czech Republic.