Defensive universal Tomáš Holeš described today’s winning round of the European Championship against the Netherlands as the best match in his life. The 28-year-old Slavia midfielder shone with an opening goal and assistance in Budapest, directing the Czechia to a surprising 2-0 win.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s like a dream. For me, definitely the best match in my life. Just because it’s the Euro, it’s a Czech national. A lot of people came to support us. It was a great match and I really enjoyed it.” said at an online press conference Holes, which was announced by the player of the match.
In the 68th minute, in the power play, after the exclusion of Matthijs de Ligta, he opened the score when he hit the ball with his head after returning it from the back post to stopper Tomáš Kalas. “Today it was mainly a team performance. The fact that I managed to score a goal was something extra. I have mainly defensive tasks. Sometimes I benefit from the fact that my opponents don’t watch me so much, because they suspect that I will be behind.” said Holeš on Czech Television.
“Then maybe I’ll use the window as I used today. I had enough time and tried to hit it in the gate so that no one would block it. Fortunately, if I didn’t, I would blame myself a lot.” added Holeš, who hit the national team for the second time.
With 80 minutes played, the home side managed to get a 1 – 0 lead as Patrik Schick flipped the ball in after a cross from the right. As the first Czech player since Euro 2004 and the match also with the Netherlands (3: 2), Holeš scored a goal and assistance in one match at the continental championship.
“Tomáš is rightly a man of the match. He already gave such performances in Slavia, when they played with Arsenal, for example. Today it was even better. Not only by stopping the opponent’s attacks, but he also scored a goal. When he signaled on the bench that he had cramps , took a long sprint, passed the goal to Páť and went to take turns deservingly. Famous performance, “ said coach Jaroslav Šilhavý at an online press conference.
The national team played a power play from the 55th minute. “The red card helped us. Until then it was even, but since then we knew we had extra players and we wanted to score a goal. We succeeded from the standard. Then we wanted to add another goal to calm down a bit, “We did a great job, too.” said Holes.
Today’s match is even higher than the opening quarterfinals of the European League in April at Arsenal, where he set a 1: 1 draw in the third minute. “Even though the emotions at Arsenal were great, because it was a tie in the 90th minute, I probably rank this match higher. The eighth finals of the Euro, which is something unreal and we managed it.” Holeš rejoiced, who peeked into the national team only last September, when he started for a hastily made selection against Scotland. The original team had to be isolated due to coronavirus complications.
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