Petr Cech captained the Czech Republic to a 2-1 victory over Latvia in order to qualify for Euro 2016 and admitted that he’s ‘tremendously happy‘ with the result.

Before the match, the goalkeeper spoke about how he’s been taking part in large tournaments for his country since he was just 16 and how he didn’t want that to end now. However, the 33-year-old claimed he would remain focussed during the match, knowing just how quickly football can change.

Speaking after the victory, the goalkeeper said, “It was a hard game for us. We played superbly in the first half, took our chances, were on the ball and scored two nice goals.”

The Czech added, “But Latvia brought on fresh players from the bench and took more risks. They increased their intensity and we had to cope with their long balls. They scored and the last 20 minutes were hectic, but we survived and we are tremendously happy to have finished the job with two games to spare.

“We are going to play against a highly motivated Turkey side in our next match and we wanted to avoid a situation where we had to get points from that game.”

The Czech Republic still have two qualifying matches to play against Turkey and Holland in October but the fact that they’ve already done the job ahead of schedule will take the pressure off their shoulders.

Cech’s home country now joins England in France next year after the Three Lions qualified on Saturday following a 6-0 win over small Italian team, San Marino. Goals from Theo Walcott and an assist from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put the cherry on top of a great performance.