Czech Republic manager Miroslav Koubek hailed his side’s penalty shoot-out win over Ireland as a show of great mentality, but wants more composure in their World Cup playoff final against a very different Denmark side.
Last Thursday’s game was Koubek’s first game in charge, and while his players got the job done, the 74-year-old coach wants more from his side in Tuesday’s game in Prague.
“That victory definitely helped us and I want to highlight the players’ performance,” Koubek told reporters.
“The mental side – the commitment, the fight, the work they put into the match – I think that got pushed a bit into the background, but it was the biggest factor in our win.
“There is room for improvement, we saw that, we know there are things we could have done differently. But it was a victory of will and character, and on the football side we will certainly want to improve things.”
Koubek believes Denmark will be an altogether different proposition than Ireland, and wants his players to show greater calm than they did in the last game.
“They have very good individuals, technically strong, very good combination play,” he said.
“It’s a team that has been together a long time, very stable. Their philosophy is completely different from Ireland’s. We want to be less nervous. We were nervous, we felt the moment, and we need to relax a bit.
“We are capable of playing similar football to Denmark. I keep asking for us to get on the ball more than we did against Ireland, and to improve the team’s ability to play.”
Bosnia-Herzegovina captain Edin Dzeko brushed aside the controversy over Italy players celebrating his team’s win over Wales, but feels the reaction showed the four-times champions are feeling the heat ahead of the playoff final between the two sides.
Italy won their semi-final against Northern Ireland on Thursday, and a number of players – including Dzeko’s former Inter Milan team-mate Federico Dimarco – were shown on Italian TV watching Bosnia’s penalty shoot-out win. The Italians appeared jubilant after Bosnia prevailed, and Bosnian fans reacted angrily when the video was shared on social media, saying it showed disrespect towards their team.
“What happened is something completely normal because we all have our preferences, mine was maybe not to play against Italy,” Dzeko told reporters on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game in Zenica.
“But today you have to be careful, with social media everything becomes bigger than it is. Dimarco messaged me and said he didn’t want to offend anyone. I told him ‘what are we even talking about? There’s absolutely no problem’.”
Sweden head coach Graham Potter looks on during a training session at Strawberry Arena in Stockholm ahead of the playoff final against Poland. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg/AFP via Getty Images
Despite a qualifying campaign in which they slumped to four defeats and finished bottom of their group, Sweden will face Poland in Solna with a chance of qualifying thanks to their Nations League performances.
Sweden were so bad in Group B that they finished fourth behind Switzerland, Kosovo and Slovenia, with whom they drew twice, and they flopped so badly in their first four games that coach Jon Dahl Tomasson became the first men’s head coach to be sacked by the Swedish football association.
“It just feels like an amazing opportunity. We have the opportunity because what the team did in the Nations League. So we are where we are, and now we’ve got one game to play to get to the World Cup, which is a dream,” Graham Potter, who took over after Tomasson, told a media conference on Monday.
“We’ve seen it as a positive opportunity, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Potter led Sweden in their last two qualifiers, losing 4-1 in Switzerland and drawing with Slovenia at home, but in the end it turned out those results were immaterial as their victory in Nations League Group C1 – the third tier of the Uefa competition – threw them a lifeline.
For the European playoffs, the 12 runners-up in the group stage of World Cup qualifying were joined by four Nations League group winners who finished outside the top two in their groups, based on the 2024–25 Uefa Nations League interim overall ranking, and the Swedes were among those four teams.
Having beaten Slovakia, Estonia and Azerbaijan to win their Nations League group, the Swedes secured a 3-1 playoff win over Ukraine in Valencia last week to stand on the cusp of a return to North America, where they came third in the 1994 tournament held on US soil.
Turkey coach Vincenzo Montella described his players as ‘real men’ as he prepares for their playoff final away to Kosovo in Pristina.
“As I speak these words, which are very important to me and come from my heart, my first thought is: our footballers are real men,” Montella told a news conference on Monday.
“I took over as head coach during a very difficult period … My players have supported me. They have always been a fighting group.
“They know that it’s not just their own names written on their backs. It’s the names of millions of Turkish people and children.”
The former Roma forward became Turkey’s head coach in 2023, helping them qualify for Euro 2024 and is now on the cusp of taking the nation to its first World Cup for 24 years.
“Everyone feels the pressure. This is a final. We haven’t been there for 24 years, but most of our players weren’t even born then,” the 51-year-old Montella said.
“If we couldn’t go for 24 years, it’s not their fault. This time we want to go, we will do our best for our country.”
Tuesday night’s World Cup playoff finals (all 7.45pm Irish time)
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy
Czech Republic v Denmark
Kosovo v Turkey
Sweden v Poland