Petr Cech has spoken of his eagerness to qualify for Euro 2016 next summer and has said it would be “special” if the Czech Republic make it to France.
Cech and co. face Kazakhstan and Latvia in the latest bout of European qualifiers and look on course to qualify for next year’s tournament as they sit comfortably in second spot in Group A.
Arsenal’s only significant signing of the summer has been involved in three European championships during his international career, but as he said to Arsenal Magazine, he is intent on making it four.
Since I joined the national team, I’ve never missed a European Championship.
I’ve always qualified.
Ever since I was 16 I’ve played in every single European Championship at every level so I hope that run will continue. I used to play in France and it would be special for me to play the Euros there.
Cech endured a rough start to life as a Gunner when he produced a faulty display in his side’s 2-0 loss at home to West Ham, but with two consecutive clean sheets, the 33-year-old has seemingly found his feet in north London.
And the former Chelsea stopper will need to transmit that form to his national side, who have had a slight dip in form.
We had an absolutely brilliant start to the campaign.
We won our first four games, including matches against Holland and in Turkey.
Unfortunately we’ve dropped points in the last two games – we drew at home against Latvia, which was a blow because we had a lot of chances. In our last game we played Iceland away and although we went 1-0 up, we lost the match.
I think this is the game we look back at and can have regrets because if we had got a point or three, it would have put ourselves much closer to our target.
We complicated our situation a little bit but we are still second and have four games to play. I believe that we have the team to qualify and hopefully we will prove it.
Cech has made 114 appearances for his national team and was part of the Czech side that made the semi-finals in Euro 2004, where they lost to eventual winners Greece after extra-time.
Arsenal’s no. 33 has also been named the Czech Footballer of the Year a record seven times, and is highly regarded in the national set-up.
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