Mircea Lucescu said he always expected his FC Shakhtar Donetsk side to beat AS Roma and book a place in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, winning 6-2 on aggregate.
The players, he added "have a great future ahead of them", a sentiment echoed by Giallorossi counterpart Vincenzo Montella. Making his coaching debut at this level he found cause for hope for a team that lost 3-0 on the night after playing over half the match with ten men following Philippe Mexès's dismissal.
“We prepared well, knowing we couldn't afford to lose the margin we earned in Rome. We had problems at the beginning of the match as Roma produced some strong football but we were well organized and managed to rearrange and eliminate errors during the match. We attacked well and after we scored the first goal we stopped thinking about Roma because the cooperation and coordination between our players grew much stronger,” Lucescu said, quoted by UEFA.com.
Vincenzo Montella, Roma coach commented: “Ahead of the game I asked my players to prove that we are improving regardless of the result and qualification. I'm satisfied because the approach was very good and we played very well while it was 11 against 11. Then Mexès was sent off and it's difficult to play at this level with ten men, especially against a side like Shakhtar: they are very good at keeping possession and use all parts of the pitch. We played a good game but once again we finished with ten men and we had a few players booked for fouls we could have avoided. I think we are improving and we shouldn't be demoralized by this defeat – that was the main problem in the team when I arrived.”
