‘When you chase your dream, you must show courage'

Thursday night was a significant one for Petr Cech - namely because it was the last European home match of his career.

Our No 1 is hanging his gloves up at the end of the season, and he kept alive his dream of finishing with a trophy by helping us to a 3-1 semi-final first-leg win over Valencia.

After the match, Cech spoke to the media, and here’s what he said.

on the first 15 minutes…

Having lost three games in a row in the league, sometimes it can leave a bit of an effect on the team. We didn’t start well, they started better than us with more confidence and aggression. They created some chances and scored the goal, but after that, we came back into the game. The performance was brilliant from then on and we scored two goals [in the first half]. In the second half, we tried to score the third one. The aim was not to concede another one - and we managed to do both tasks.

on the impact of Lacazette and Aubameyang…

We rely on the team, and with the quality of our strikers, it helps. We need goals to win football games and those two are providing goals at the moment. Hopefully they can find some more at the Mestalla and in the remainder of the season. 

on the Emirates crowd - and if he’ll miss nights like this…

Yeah. This was my last-ever home game in European competitions, so it’s a bit of a strange feeling for me. I wanted to win and get into a position to live my dream of lifting the trophy in my last game. That is still alive and thanks to my team-mates, we are in a good position. 

on if the away performance at Napoli needs to be our template in the second leg…

When you are chasing your dreams, you need to show courage at home or away. That’s how you win European trophies. We are aware that the game is going to be difficult, even more so than here, because they have nothing to lose and have to chase the result. Hopefully we will take it as an advantage.