Slovakia coach Vladimir Weiss insisted on Thursday that even masterminding the stunning 3-2 World Cup victory over defending champions Italy can’t beat the day he became a father.
“After the birth of my son [also called Vladimir], this is the second-best day of my life,” said Weiss, whose team finished second in Group F to reach the round-of-16 on their debut appearance at a World Cup. “I’m sorry for Italy, but it was a fantastic day for us because before the match we were under a bit of pressure. I’m very proud of my team, everyone played to a high level.”
“We were expecting the quality of the last World Cup winners, we were under a lot of pressure in the last 15 minutes, but today we played a fantastic game and the better team won,” he said.
Two-goal star Robert Vittek praised Slovakia’s heart and courage.
Vittek gave Slovakia a two-goal lead, before his teammates survived a chaotic last 10 minutes to squeeze through.
“Of course, we didn’t expect to dominate, although I wouldn’t say we dominated as such, but we did have the match under control,” Vittek said. “We were better, we really played with heart and that’s what decided the match today.”
“In our first match [a 1-1 draw with New Zealand] we were unlucky, in the second [a 2-0 defeat to Paraguay] our opponents were better than us, but today we were better and that’s why we’re moving on,” he said. “This is a huge success, we really pushed the limits of Slovak football. Beforehand, we couldn’t have dreamed about this, I’m so happy, we showed everything that we’re capable of in achieving this.”
Now Vittek is hoping that the debutants can keep the surprises coming, including in the round-of-16 where they will face one of the favorites, the Netherlands.
“We expect it to be the Netherlands, that’s 99 percent sure. We’ve got nothing to lose, we came here as outsiders and newcomers, and we wanted to surprise people,” Vittek said. “We’ve done it once and we hope to do it again. We hope to play against the Dutch in the way we played today, but they are one of the favorites.”
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