Vrba proud of Plzen improvement

Viktoria Plzen coach Pavel Vrba was proud of his side’s effort in their brave 1-0 Champions League loss to holders Bayern Munich.

The Czech club were hosting the Bundesliga powerhouse on Tuesday, and had kept them scoreless beyond the hour mark – only to be denied in the 65th minute by a Mario Mandzukic strike.

Plzen’s chances of progressing from their tough Group D were extinguished with the defeat, although they remain a chance of finishing third and playing in the Europa League final stages as they trail CSKA Moscow by just three points with two games to play.

Vrba, though, said he was still pleased with their output against Bayern.

“I am really glad we showed the right face of Viktoria Plzeň and we presented ourselves totally differently compared with the game in Munich,” he said.

“We would all be really happy if we continued performing as we have today in our upcoming matches.

“We didn’t take a point so I cannot say it was an ideal match.

“But to play like that against such strong opponents definitely lifts us for our next games – we are capable of fighting for third place in our final group game against CSKA here in Plzen in December.

“For us, that would be a very positive achievement.”

Bayern thrashed Plzen 5-0 only last month at the Allianz, and Vrba was pleased his side improved on that performance on Tuesday.

“We have learned our lessons from the defeat at Bayern,” he said.

“I had a feeling that we went there with too much fear and it was not us – this was not our face.

“I think we may have surprised Bayern a bit with our enterprise and we made it much more difficult for them today.

“Our aim is to play the football that brought us so many successes and I hope we will be on the winning side again.”