Russia 4-1 Czech Republic

Russia’s two-goal hero Alan Dzagoyev (right) vies for the ball with Czech Republic’s Michal Kadlec in their Euro 2012 clash on Friday. AFP pic

RUSSIA'S coach Dick Advocaat said he was happy with his side's four-goal showing against the Czech Republic but  warned that there are tougher tasks ahead.

Russia swept aside a poor Czech team but that's not to take anything away from the electricity in their play.

With three forwards and the likes of Konstantin Zyryakov and Roman Shirokov attacking from deep, Russia created several chances and could have scored more than the four they managed.

The brief riposte from the Czechs through Vaclav Pilar when already 2-0 down did little to stem the tide of red shirts sweeping towards their goal.

"We were quite happy about the game because four goals in an international game against the Czech Republic is a very good result," said Advocaat.

"We should've scored more goals as we had a lot of chances. At 2-1 it was tight so we have to get better at that.

"Maybe a better team will score more against us but for the first game I'm really happy, 4-1 is a great result."

He was right in believing it should have been more and indeed it would have been had Aleksandr Kerzhakov had his radar pointing in the right direction.

Advocaat took off Kerzhakov 17 minutes from time and his replacement Roman Pavlyuchenko showed him how it was done by thumping home the fourth.

But Advocaat defended his hitman and also praised captain Andrey Arshavin, who created a host of his team's chances.

"I would pick Kerzhakov again, you make certain choices and you have to back those choices," said the veteran Dutchman.

"He's a good footballer, he just forgot to score. He works hard for the team, has a lot of movement, the only thing he didn't do is score.

"Andrey played a really good game, he worked very hard, he's very important for the team.

"The way he can play, I feel very positive about him and the whole team."

The Russian league season finished quite late in comparison to other European leagues and Advocaat has been mindful of not over-working his players in the build-up to this tournament.

"It was very important that we only trained once a day because all the players play in the Russian league and they played one and a half seasons and only had one week off," said Advocaat.

The Czechs were far from some of their talented teams of the past but Advocaat denied his side can only perform that way against lesser opposition, pointing to their friendly win over Italy as proof.

"Who is better? You have to demonstrate who is better. We played very well but sometimes we will have to be better than that, we know that," added Advocaat.

"It's not right to say that we wouldn't be as good against a better team, we proved that against Italy." AFP

Read more: EURO 2012: Red mist rising - Soccer - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/soccer/euro-2012-red-mist-rising-1.92903#ixzz1xMVxJyov