No Czech mates for Baros and Bilek following Spanish defeat

Under-pressure Czech coach Michal Bilek insists he could still pick out-of-form forward Milan Baros in Lithuania, despite his awful showing on Friday.

The Czechs are in disarray after their 2-0 defeat to Spain in Prague. The match was marred by angry Czech fans shouting songs about Bilek throughout the game and when former Liverpool striker Baros was eventually put out of his misery and substituted, the home fans stood up and started cheering and clapping.

At one stage the Generali Arena united in the second half to chant “Bilek Out” in a deeply uncomfortable night for the manager. Bilek – who also saw key man Tomas Hubschman sent off for a terrible lunge on Xabi Alonso – was outraged at the reaction of his own supporters and he attacked them for their barracking of Baros.

Now he faces a dilemma ahead of their trip to the Baltics about whether to keep faith with his woefully out-of-form striker. Bilek said: “A player of his calibre did not deserve treatment like that. It is very frustrating when you hear the fans shouting things at him. I don’t mind them shouting at me – I am used to it, I get it all the time. But it is very annoying to hear this from our own fans.

“When the whole stadium is screaming at Milan to be taken off, it’s very bad. He is not a player who deserves a reaction like that. We have three strikers and each has their own merits. Milan didn’t have the game we would have wanted, but I still have confidence in him.

“People have to remember we were playing the World Champions who have players from Real Madrid, Barcelona and Chelsea. They can punish you very easily as was shown.”

But Bilek remains convinced it will be his side and not Scotland in the Euro 2012 play-off.

He stressed: “I have no fear of Lithuania. We lost to an opponent who were better than us.

“For us, nothing has changed. We knew before this we would have to win in Lithuania.”