Champions League - What the managers said

Eurosport - Thu, 02 Oct 13:35:00 2008

All the reaction from the men in charge following Wednesday's Champions League action, with Big Phil Scolari acknowledging his side's poor performance.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Champions League Chelsea Cluj-Chelsea Ballack - 0

CFR Cluj 0-0 Chelsea

Maurizio Trombetta: "No matter what results we have already obtained, our objective remains third spot."

Luiz Felipe Scolari: "It was difficult, we did not play well, the players know that, but one point is better than zero. A 0-0 draw was not a bad result. Cluj were confident, they wanted to prove something. Maybe they will have a problem in their next game because they ran for 95 minutes."

Liverpool 3-1 PSV Eindhoven

Rafa Benitez: "Going forward he [Steven Gerrard] is one of the best midfielders in the world. Today [he got his] 100th goal, he is still young and can maybe score 200."

Huub Stevens: "People have made mistakes and if that happens you will be punished but there was a difference in quality. The financial gap between the Dutch clubs and the rest of Europe is too big now. When you see the players in Italy, Spain and England, there is a difference. We are just happy to be in the Champions League whereas they must win. It is a problem for the Netherlands."

Atletico Madrid 2-1 Marseille

Javier Aguirre: "It's good to start the game with a goal quickly. He [Aguero] has made a great effort, his attitude is first rate."

Erik Gerets: "We need to win in Endhoven first. As long as we win there, we have a chance. Madrid and Liverpool were not better than us."

Bordeaux 1-3 Roma

Laurent Blanc: "We lost a player (Brazilian forward Jussie) early through injury and another through a sending off: that made it tough. We're not dreaming, we know it doesn't look good, but I also want to say we're getting better and closer to the way I want to see us play."

Luciano Spalletti: "Bordeaux played well for an hour and I was really worried but Mirko's goal restored our confidence and Baptista, who's an experienced player, did the rest."

Anorthosis Famagusta 3-1 Panathinaikos

Temuri Ketsbaia: "Congratulations to the players for this victory. It is a historic day for the country today (Cyprus's 48th anniversary) and we marked it with another historic day for us. The whole of Europe will talk about Cyprus and Anorthosis."

Henk Ten Cate: "Congratulations to Mr. Ketsbaia, I didn't get a chance to congratulate him because they ran out to celebrate at the end of the match. We conceded an early goal and that was extremely bad because it forced us to change our plans."

Internazionale 1-1 Werder Bremen

Jose Mourinho: "If one of their players had to score I am happy it is him [Claudio Pizarro]. I think the team that should have won was us but football isn't like that and we have to accept the result."

Thomas Schaaf: "At the start of the second half we began to be more attacking and show more conviction. We must do better as with draws we cannot progress."

Sporting 2-0 Basel

Paulo Bento: "Sporting started the match well, we created four opportunities to score in the first half against a team that was well-organised in defence. The second half was well-played, we took advantage of being ahead. I think this was a fair victory, although we could have won with a bigger difference."

Christian Gross: "I'm not unhappy, we improved a lot in relation to our first match. Now we have to show what we're capable of against Barcelona. I think the difference was the speed of Sporting's game in the second half. A man came on (Vukcevic) who speeded up play. They had some luck but deserved to win."

Shakhtar 1-2 Barcelona

Mircea Lucescu [on Barcelona refusing to put the ball out for an injury]: "It is a shame what Barcelona have done today. If this happened in any other stadium, in England or in Italy, they would not have been allowed to get out of this alive."

Pep Guardiola: "We already know what Messi is capable of doing. Leo does the unexpected and is a very decisive player."

Eurosport

Comment 1 - 16 of 16

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  1. forget arsenal, like their name-gunners, ther are gonners dis season. bolton and hull-city have shown us all how easy it is 2 deal with arsenal. very lucky against bolton but not so lucky againt hull-city. any time d game becomes physical, who d u c in arsenal trying 2 show presence, song and denilson? gallas was pathetic against hull-city, maning and complaining. adebayor as a striker! waste of money, plays only when d opposition allows him 2 play. it wll be a miracle if arsenal makes d 1st 6 in the epl dis year.

    From gbadunolapade, on Thu 2 Oct 2:32PM

  2. F.C Porto,the champions of 2004 are now an easier team than Aalborg!because they were playing against Arsenal!What the f#### is wrong with these people,when Arsenal wins convincingly, they say the opponents were easy,when they lose to smaller team like Hull, then they laugh!Wake up you sleeping pretenders!Arsenal is a strong team, let us wait and see.

    From Sammy, on Thu 2 Oct 1:56PM

  3. emeka should adebayor play 2 minutes you @#$% wat club do you even go for tht is better than arsenal

    From ANONYMOUS, on Thu 2 Oct 1:54PM

  4. hai cfr tot asha 2-0 cu bordeaux

    From g30rg3_2oo8, on Thu 2 Oct 11:50AM

  5. All the English Teams will get through these group stages.
    then it gets harder as the better teams are left.
    Lets see what happens then.
    Should be one maybe two English teams in the semis

    From mike_burwin@..., on Thu 2 Oct 10:09AM

  6. "Ferguson is only good when facing 'domestic' opposition' and this is the only reason why Man U. are current European Champs"

    How the hell does that theory stand, when United have made it into the semis for the past 2 years, winning it last year, but having played only ONE game against a domestic opponent? If Utd were truly only good against English sides, they wouldn't have made it into the final in the first place.

    From Claudiu Z, on Thu 2 Oct 6:58AM

  7. Manchester United won Barca in the rise to their Euro Glory last season. What counts is consistency. Over the 2 decades consistent equates to manchester united.

    From don i, on Thu 2 Oct 6:36AM

  8. Too early to say who's gonna win the Champions League but my money is on another British team.
    Liverpool look good - Chelsea should make it this time - Arsenal, although not impressive, still do
    the job. I'll discount Man Utd unless the semis will figure British teams only. Ferguson is only good
    when facing 'domestic' opposition' and this is the only reason why Man U. are current European Champs

    From joe scribe, on Wed 1 Oct 4:56PM

  9. Man U r now in their element. Prem teams watch out and Champs Leagu teams, underrate Man U at ur detriment.
    Good work Berbatov.

    From jidegold41, on Wed 1 Oct 2:58PM

  10. GOOD WORK GUNNERS. BUT I STILL THINK THAT THEY HAD AN EASY TEAM TO DEAL WITH. THEY'RE GONNA HAVE THEIR WORK CUT OUT FOR THEM WHEN THEY FACE STIFFER OPPOSITION.

    I BELIEVE CHELSEA ARE TRASHING ALL COMERS 4-0 THIS SEASON. AND LIVERPOOL TOO ARE GONNA HAVE A GOOD OUTING. AS FOR MAN UTD, I THINK IT'S GETTING PRETTY OBVIOUS THAT WITHOUT C. RONALDO, THE TEAM CAN'T CHUNK OUT IMPRESSIVE RESULTS. NO WAY THIS SEASON

    From Dada, on Wed 1 Oct 11:03AM

  11. Zenit are not just up for the Champion's league, they really hard a good game but couldn't just finish Real up or even get a point too bad, Good 4 Man Utd their lazy striker i've started scoring, nice game 4 the gunners even though they missed alot of good chances, i still wonder why Wenger even plays Adebayor for 90mins. I pray Chelski get some real thrashing today lol

    From Emeka O, on Wed 1 Oct 10:18AM

  12. i was impressed with BATE Borisov btw. unfortuantely they couldn't hold on. i think that Zenit desrved at least a goal, but they gave away 2 stupid goals. 1 - what was the def doing, 2 - what was the same guy thinking? trying to hack the ball away when it's going wide is not very smart now is it???
    Man U played well, unfortunately for Scholesy hes out 6+ weeks and Rooney, ouch!
    Arsenal tbh, played awful in the first 10 mins, Porto deserved something then, but as it goes to show again, not taking chances means you get punished!
    last of all
    how does Juninho do his freekicks?

    From seabass, on Wed 1 Oct 10:01AM

  13. The GUNNERS gun down FC Porto despite the criticisms.
    It's ARSENAL or no other team!

    From Adediran Abiola Alao, on Wed 1 Oct 9:52AM

  14. BBT's got his first 2 goals. i reckon he'll win de golden boot both in the premship and d champs lge. i've put my money on dat already.

    From eleanya, on Wed 1 Oct 9:48AM

  15. UTD on course for a 3rd champs lge title. GO UTD!!!

    From eleanya, on Wed 1 Oct 9:47AM

  16. Aragones says Fenerbahce played well!

    Get Zico back, it's been many years since i saw Fener play so badly in Europe. They played with 1 striker at home against one of the worst travelling teams in Europe!

    Negative tactics and no wonder they are having the worst start to the Turkish league for 20 years

    From jvsupreme, on Wed 1 Oct 8:22AM
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