Roma resolve satisifies Spalletti

AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti felt his side "proved that we deserved to go through" after Christian Panucci scored the only goal against Valencia CF to earn the Giallorossi the runners-up spot in Group D. Valencia boss Quique Sánchez Flores was too hoarse to attend the post-match conference, but the work of his side was done long before they left for Italy.

Luciano Spalletti, Roma coach
It was a really important win. The team prepared very well and we proved that we deserve to go through. We were lucky to challenge a team who had already qualified but we played with great experience and can now enjoy this qualification. It wasn't an easy game, especially mentally, and we need some time to recover. If I had to say a team I would like to avoid Lyon in the next round but when you're in the last 16 in a competition as important as this you can't expect to find an easy opponent. The message from tonight is that we have the players to challenge for the Serie A title and the Champions League.

Francisco Escriba, Valencia assistant coach
We lost a game where we gave everything even if we didn't have too many regulars in the starting team – it was not a training session. All the players who took to that pitch are Valencia players and the staff believe in every one of them. Our approach was good, as it is for every game at this level, and at the end of the day we won the group which is a great achievement for us. We hope to have some key players back for the next round.