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The captain of the Czech national team, Tomas Rosicky, identified the reason for the defeat to Lithuania as missed opportunities, but admitted that they created too few at the opponent's goal.
"It's very bad to start a qualifying tournament like this," said the London Arsenal attacking midfielder. "We created too few chances at the opponents' goal, and that is my job."
And he added: "We made everything difficult for ourselves from the beginning."
Meanwhile, striker Milan Baros said that everything could have turned out differently if he had scored a penalty kick.
"I wanted to shoot to the corner, but it went more towards the ground," he said. "If I had scored, everything could have been completely different.
"Sometimes football is cruel. We didn't play very badly, we had opportunities, but we didn't score. The Lithuanians scored a goal after a quick attack, and then just defended."
Disappointed was also coach Michalis Bílek: "We found ourselves in a bad situation. We disappointed the fans who expected a victory. Unfortunately, the reality was different.
"We started the match well, pressed and could have scored, but didn't succeed. The opponents were not easy for us. Everything could have turned out differently if we had scored the penalty."
