Petr matches a record in the number of national team features

“I’m happy about the record, much less so about the result, though. It was a fairly equal game but we made some fatal mistakes at the start,” said Petr. The Poles had punished a series of mistakes in the team’s defence and had gotten into a 2-0 lead by the 12th minute.

“We then had to try to overturn a two-goal deficit, which is always tough. We did play quite well afterwards, but we still lacked quality in the opponent’s box. We weren’t able to score apart from the one goal prior to which we had ironically been passed the ball by the home team,” admitted Petr.

He was nevertheless cheerful about his record. 188 games is no small number. “I will mostly remember this record by the amazing atmosphere accompanying the match,” Petr referred to the 40 thousand fans present. “Also, I’m inevitably going to remind myself of the awful start to the game. As a result, I won’t be left with too many positive memories, but that’s how football works sometimes,” added Petr.

When he had first featured in the national A-team back in 2002, Petr had never even fathomed the possibility of breaking records. “But now I value it dearly. It’s quite something to have retained the team’s and the managers’ trust for this long, and it’s invaluable feedback for myself."