Viktoria Plzeň coach Miroslav Koubek after the first match of Group C of the European Conference League against Ballkani.

Are these three points important in terms of not being able to get through that solid defense for a long time?

I told you it would be tough. They played at speed, they´re great on the ball, great movement, they´re an organized team that also played with three stoppers. We relied on pressing and repressing football. The situations we created we didn´t handle well qualitatively and it was a game that didn´t have many chances. The second half you could see that we were coming into them more. I felt more danger and constant pressure into the goal. Obviously we had to watch the back door because they are strong dangerous in that transition.

How would you rate the performance of the defence today?

My hat´s off to our back line, which has been on the line for quite some time. The back three is definitely our building block and their performance is good and I´m happy. The game was what we expected, it was one goal, few chances. I praise the boys for a very good physical performance, maybe the final could have been a little bit better. 

Did you urge the players to shoot more at half-time?

A good theme is blocked shots, they just had a wall there. They blocked a lot of shots, the one they didn´t block was the goal. We encourage the players to shoot all the time. We want to finish, pick up rebounds, shoot. It´s about what the opponent allows us to do. Sometimes he´ll pick up the rebounds, disrupt the combinations, not let you into the final combinations. When we have the opportunity, we encourage the players to shoot. At half-time the instruction was, we´re going to score that goal, we´re going to get in there and the main thing is to keep the back line zero. 

Lukas Kalvach played a great game today, which he decided with his goal, what do you think? 

Lukas is a very key person on this team. He gave a great performance again. He´s everywhere, scoring goals, making smart passes. 

How tough an opponent was Ballkani today?

They´re the champions of their country, they play good football there. They´re footballers. It´s a different level than the prelims. They´re playing in the European Conference League for the second year, there are players who have had cup starts, it´s definitely a good team and a tough opponent.