European Football Cup 2008’s Weblog

Petr Čech said the Czech Republic’s elimination from UEFA EURO 2008™ “summed up his season” as he struggled to come to terms with a remarkable final group match against Turkey, who shattered the Czechs’ hopes of a quarter-final place with two moments of wonderful opportunism from forward Nihat Kahveci.

Absolutely devastated
Čech, who was at fault for Nihat’s first goal but had no chance with his spectacular second, admitted it would take a while to recover from the 3-2 defeat which not only ended the Czechs’ interest in the EURO but also ended his hopes of winning a trophy this season. “We are absolutely devastated,” he told euro2008.com. “It’s hard to believe what just happened. We felt we played very well in the first half and were in control of the game. Jan [Koller] gave us the lead and when we went two goals up there did not seem any way back for Turkey.

‘No chance’
“However, they got the first and their tails seemed to go up and then I made a mistake for the second and suddenly they were back in the game. At least at that point it seemed like penalties and we were still in with a chance but then Nihat broke clear and scored an incredible goal. I had no chance. That game really sums up my season, especially after losing out on three trophies for Chelsea [FC] in the final games. We came so close but blew it in the end.” Asked how he would deal with his error for the second goal, he said: “It’s just one of those things. Everybody makes mistakes and I am a human being. I tried my best but there was a lot of water on the ball and it slipped from my grasp.”

‘Cruel end’
Czech Republic captain Tomáš Ujfaluši added: “It was a cruel way to end our participation in this tournament. We felt we deserved to reach the last eight and were very much in control of the match until the last ten minutes. Then suddenly we made some mistakes which are very uncharacteristic of our team and our defence and we now find ourselves eliminated. It’s awful but we must deal with it and accept that Turkey beat us.”