De Boer: We were lucky

You need to have luck in a tournament so I hope we have had our luck and we can just start playing football

Frank De Boer

"When the second half started we gave away the game. We were not alert enough and they had several chances and (Edwin) van der Sar had to make several good saves."

The Dutch captain said he chose the corner he was going to hit the penalty into after twin brother Ronald was adjudged to have been pulled down in the area in the 88th minute.

Nedved wins a header

"After every training all the players take two penalties and up until now I haven't missed one.

"You need to have luck in a tournament so I hope we have had our luck and we can just start playing football. The Dutch didn't have the luck in the opening game in '88 and now we have it.

Luck

"We are very happy to have such luck as it's very important to win the first game."

Holland coach Rijkaard said: "We were very lucky in the second half that the Czechs didn't score. It seemed like we had a little angel sitting on our goal-line.

He added: "We gave their strikers too much space to receive the ball and turn. We have got to change that during the tournament."

"They are a really good team and we are delighted to get the first three points. It was critical to do that," added Rijkaard.