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CFR's Bastos revels in 'amazing' Braga return

If CFR 1907 Cluj completed an important first step toward reaching the UEFA Champions League knockout stage, two-goal Rafael Bastos says they are taking things one game at a time.

CFR's Bastos revels in 'amazing' Braga return
CFR's Bastos revels in 'amazing' Braga return ©UEFA.com

Former SC Braga midfielder Rafael Bastos could not hide his glee after two goals from the 27-year-old at his old club gave CFR 1907 Cluj the perfect start in UEFA Champions League Group H. "It's a dream come true, amazing," he told UEFA.com. CFR goalkeeper Mário Felgueiras was in full agreement, saying the result in Portugal allows the Romanian champions to "continue dreaming" of a place in the next phase.

Rafael Bastos, CFR attacker
It was dream come true for me to score two goals against my former club. Furthermore, to do so in the UEFA Champions League is something amazing. I want to congratulate our entire team, the coach and our fans for this huge success. We played very well tonight and I think we fully deserved to win.

Despite the victory, we are not thinking beyond the group stage – we are taking things one match at a time. Our next game is at home to Manchester United on 2 October and we are certain we will face a tough task because we are talking about playing against one of the greatest clubs in the world. Everyone knows their strengths. It will be another hard battle but we will do our best to achieve our goal.

Mário Felgueiras, CFR goalkeeper
This was a fine victory. We always believed it was possible to come here and get a result. Now we have to follow it up by continuing to work hard in the UEFA Champions League and the domestic championship. We will continue to fight as we did tonight in our next match, our fans can be sure of that. Manchester United in the next game will be a very special occasion. United are one of the biggest clubs in Europe but we will approach the encounter in the same way we did the Braga game.

Our team has a strong Portuguese contingent and I think that came into play. It proved the quality of the Portuguese players. I hope this can finally be the year CFR go past the group stage. It's very important to win the first match of the group stage, especially as our section is a difficult one. Tonight's result allows us to keep dreaming of going further.

Beto, Braga goalkeeper
This was certainly not the result we were expecting from our first match but, then again, everything went wrong tonight. We are very disappointed with the outcome, particularly as Cluj had only three or four shots and managed to score twice. We really wanted to win and I think in a way that worked against us. We may have been too anxious to succeed and in the end we paid the price.

We knew how they were going to play, with a strong defence and trying their best on the break, but unfortunately we were unable to prevent them from scoring. We had our chances but couldn't convert. We must raise ourselves, not only for the UEFA Champions League but also for the matches to come in the Portuguese championship which is very important for us. Playing Galatasaray in Turkey next is hard but I am sure we will respond with a victory.

Nuno André Coelho, Braga defender
To lose 2-0 at home to CFR was certainly not in our plans. We made too many mistakes in defence and they cost us two goals. We cannot blame just our defence for the defeat, though, as we had several chances to score and didn't, so in the end everyone is responsible. We have to improve a lot in both defence and attack if we are to have any chance of qualifying. We managed to keep CFR at bay almost the entire match but that wasn't enough. They were lucky to get the points but that's football.

We will work very hard to improve what needs to be improved. It is not the time to talk about our next match against Galatasaray as we have an important league game coming up. When the time comes we will prepare well for Galatasaray and hopefully get a different result that will put our campaign back on track.