Janda celebrates Czech spirit

Petr Janda believes that the Czech Republic's inner strength helped them to a highly impressive 3-1 win against Austria in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship and could yet take Miroslav Soukup's side all the way in the competition.

Rapid response
The Czechs began the finals in Poland with a hugely disappointing 4-2 defeat by Belgium, but bounced back in fine style barely two days later as Jakub Mareš, Janda and Marek Strestik all found the net to secure three vital points. With the other Group A sides also on three points having won one and lost the other of their first two games, the section could not be more intriguingly poised ahead of Sunday's concluding fixtures when the Czechs take on the hosts and Austria meet Belgium.

Medal ambition
"We knew we wouldn't get another opportunity to get through to the semi-final. This was our last chance and we're aiming to get a medal here," Janda told uefa.com after the Austrian victory. "This team has a lot of resolve; we got to these finals from a very tough [Elite round] group in Ukraine and there is real belief in this team that we are capable of doing very well in this tournament. We want to show how good we are."

Exceptional afternoon
Janda himself enjoyed a memorable afternoon at the Stadion Miejski in Swarzedz, winning the penalty from which Mareš opened the scoring, adding the second himself after his initial shot had been parried and starting the move which led to Strestik's third goal early in the second half. "I'm very satisfied with my own performance and I hope to continue this form in the next match," he admitted. "It was a great game, we played very well. We got a bit nervous when Austria pulled a goal back to make it 3-1, but we held our nerve."

Motivating defeat
Defensive mistakes had cost the Czechs dear against Belgium and, unsurprisingly, Janda feels his side cannot afford any more mistakes – although he acknowledged the defeat had at least proved to be a valuable motivating tool on matchday two. "I was really determined as I knew that it was our last opportunity to get through and give ourselves a chance of getting to the final. We all felt the same, we are a very good team; even in the first game we had more chances than Belgium but we made a few mistakes and that cost us.

Errors eradicated
We really wanted to play better against Austria, and we did that. The coach told us what was wrong in the first match and we put it right." Janda and his team-mates will hope the Czechs can continue putting things right when they play Poland.