The Czech Republic midfielder admitted his side failed to deal with the Russian game plan and paid for not taking its early chances.
Czech Republic midfielder Tomas Rosicky praised Russia's counterattacking game plan in the 4-1 Euro 2012win over his side on Friday.Alan Dzagoev grabbed the headlines netting twice and further goals from Roman Pavlyuchenko and Roman Shirokov rendered Vaclav Pilar’s second-half strike irrelevant
After the match, Rosicky revealed that his side had hoped to press their opposition early but was picked off by Dick Advocaat's clinical team.
He told reporters: “We wanted to be active from the kick off, engaging in the attack but we failed whenever we lost the ball and Russia's counter attacks were very tough for us to cope with.”
The Arsenal midfielder also expressed his belief that the Czechs' wastefulness cost them in the first half and left them chasing the game late on.
“There was a phase at the start when we weren't scared, we had our chances and we were the better side," he continued. "Being two-nil down at half time we couldn't cope with counterattacks for the rest of the game. In our next matches will show how good we are."
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