Ferreira praises 'mature' Porto

FC Porto coach Jesualdo Ferreira congratulated his team on their "maturity" and "control" after a goalless draw with Arsenal FC sent both sides into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Visiting manager Arsène Wenger breathed a sigh of relief after Ricardo Quaresma struck the post twice for the home side but a draw was ultimately enough to send both teams through from Group G at the expense of PFC CSKA Moskva, who lost at Hamburger SV.

Jesualdo Ferreira, Porto coach
I want to congratulate the players and the club because we achieved the first goal of the season, reaching the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. We didn't start the competition well, but got better with time, winning matches and points that gave us qualification. We fully deserved that. In the first half we didn't play much and were playing a style of play that we were not used to. We changed it at half-time and in the first 20-25 minutes of the second period we played well and were the only team that created chances. Towards the end we knew CSKA were winning and then both teams had to be clever in managing the result, but then with Hamburg's [win] things got better. Players then knew what to do and showed some maturity, but we were always in control. We were the better team and the ones who wanted to score the most, but what mattered most is that we qualified.

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
We suffered tonight. Porto played well and improved a lot, we were flat physically and weren't playing well when it was time to attack, with Emmanuel Adebayor having little support. We were cautious and had some luck when the ball hit the post twice. Only in the last five minutes were both teams afraid of conceding a goal that would be fatal. We couldn't lose this match, we had a difficult group but did well and only lost in Moscow when we didn't deserve to. Although the 0-0 was the result people were expecting, the match didn't reflect that. Now we have the small advantage of playing the second match of the next round at home and the names of Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona as potential opponents are not so important.