Let's do better

	14 Jul 2008
	VIDEO: U19s training
	Watch the Young Lions, as they train in the Czech Republic for the European U19 Championships.

UEFA European U19 Championships
Chance Arena, Jablonec, Czech Republic
5.30pm (local time) Monday 14 July 2008
Live on Eurosport
Click here for the full tournament details 

England U19 Head Coach Brian Eastick couldn’t hide his disappointment at losing the opening game of the UEFA European U19 Championship on Monday.

Two goals in the second half saw the Czech Republic run out as winners in front of their home crowd in Jablonec before they had two men sent off as the Young Lions sensed a way back into the game.

It wasn’t to be though and Eastick now knows that his team need to find two positive results from their remaining group games with Italy and Greece.

“We knew that the Czech Republic have some very good players and playing at home, it was going to be a hard game for us,” said Eastick after the game.

“There was an error between the two central defenders and the goalkeeper for the first goal and for the second goal, it was quite evident that the marking was non existent.

“If you give the opposition any free shot at goal in the six yard box, then you’re going to concede goals. To say the marking was poor would be an understatement.”

With the hosts reduced to ten and then nine men with two sending offs in the later stages of the second half, Eastick felt his team should have taken advantage of that to find a way back into the match.

“The disappointment for me was when we went two goals down and they were a man down, the England players out there were capable of playing much better football,” he added.

“Instead of keeping our heads to keep on probing and passing the ball, we didn’t and we looked disorganised.

“We should have played more sensibly, with more technique and we would have had a good chance to get back to 2-1 and then we would have had a chance.

“But we didn’t move the ball quick enough or stretch the Czech Republic out enough.

“We have no complaints about the result though, I thought over the 90 minutes, the Czech Republic deserved to win the game.”

The Young Lions now face Italy on Thursday evening, before their final Group B game against Greece next Sunday and with those two teams sharing a 1-1 draw in the other game on Monday, everything is still open.

“I’ve just spoken to the players in there and there’s big disappointment because they know they’re capable of playing much better,” revealed Eastick.

“We’re still in the tournament though, as much as we would like to have won here, but it is a big disappointment to us with the way we played.

“We now need to go away and analyse our second half performance and show a big improvement against Italy.”