Kotal: I don’t feel bitterness. I thanked the players, despite the development they tried

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“Still, I thanked the players,” Kotal said after the match. “Despite the development, they tried, they can’t be blamed for that.”

And from another? How about a red card for Krejčí’s tracker who broke the match?

I admit that I did not see if there was a foul or not. But the fact is that it broke the match completely. Apart from the beginning, when the opponent surprised us, we then combined well, got into the game, but after the exclusion, we only played from the secured defense to counterattacks. The development of the match did not add much to us.

You had to pull midfielder Pavelka into the defense, who never played the stopper.
It was an emergency role. The only other option was young Vitík, but we didn’t want to throw him into the match at seventeen, which we play at ten. We had to change tactics, we played in two lines, we shifted the focus of the game. But the quality of the opponent was so high that the result is clear.

How much match did the injury and coronavirus issues you had to deal with affect?
We thoroughly prepared for the opponent, but we lacked players, some did not play for another three weeks. It wasn’t easy, and at ten it was even more complicated. We leveled after the break, but the opponent was so strong that he looked for a loophole until he found it.

Lille was also helped by several controversial verdicts of the Croatian referee Strukan. Did he hurt you?
I’ve been in football for so long that I don’t feel any bitterness. I take it as it is. I was just afraid that someone would react badly so that we wouldn’t get unnecessary cards. We are playing another match with Milan in a week, we want to be in the strongest possible composition. Lada Krejčí will probably receive some punishment, we will see if the others will heal us. We have to play with what we have.

So why wasn’t the Hložek forward in the line-up from the first minute? He ran until the second half.
Adam did not train for ten days, he jumped two days before the match. Juliš had it full of sneakers at half-time, he was flying among the stoppers, so we wanted to save him so that fresh blood would come instead. He and Hložek fulfilled their role.

Do you have any idea about the line-up that will take place in Milan?
It’s being worked out, we’ll see. The advantage is that we still have a week, the trackers Plechatý and Čelůstka could be available.

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