Beating Ukraine 'bodes well' for Czech Republic

Jakub Dovalil was delighted with his Czech Republic side's second-half surge that earned a 2-1 win against Ukraine in Group B, courtesy of Bořek Dočkal's two goals in Viborg. The Czech coach, who put their improvement down to midfield changes, is now looking forward to two big games against Spain and England.

For his part, Ukraine coach Pavlo Yakovenko confirmed a nasty injury to captain Taras Stepanenko and said he would take it easy on his team in training over the next few days.

Jakub Dovalil, Czech Republic coach
It is our first match at the European Championship so it's a fantastic beginning for us. During the first half both sides were a little nervous as expected, but in the second half we made some changes in midfield and the second-half football was good – we played very well.

The side worked very hard and I think at the end of the game we were a bit unlucky with one individual mistake. It is the first victory of the tournament and it bodes very well for us in the future.

Tomáš Hořava [who was replaced at half-time by Jan Morávek] is a good player but it was not his best day. Still, even though he wasn't at his best, he was a little bit unlucky that we changed it around at half-time.

We're ready for England and Spain because the draw for the finals happened last November, so we knew what we were up against. We are ready for the other teams in our group.

Pavlo Yakovenko, Ukraine coach
There were no indications during the first half that we might lose. Maybe we dwelled on the ball too much in the middle of the pitch. That's probably the only thing, while the Czechs made the most of their chances. We need to watch the tape and study why this happened. Unfortunately for Stepanenko, he has a partial tear of his adductor muscle.

The quantity of the training sessions is not important. It is important for the players to rest and recuperate after these games. It's very hard as it's only two days and we have to reinvigorate the players who participated in this match.

I think we were in good physical condition because at the end of the game we scored and we also created some dangerous moments. We've got good conditions for rehabilitation at our base and we will do all we can to prepare for the next game and try to bounce back.