Cúper praises professional performance

Internazionale FC travelled to Bayer 04 Leverkusen with nothing other than a victory on their minds. The Italian side's coach, Héctor Cúper, said his "players did a job" after Obafemi Martins and Emre Belözoglu scored in a 2-0 win.

'Deserved win'
The victory rendered Newcastle United FC's defeat by FC Barcelona irrelevant, and it is Inter who advance with the unbeaten Spanish Group A winners to the quarter-finals. "All in all I think we deserved to win the game. We had the better chances and could have got a few more goals," Cúper said. "In the end the players did the job and I would like to compliment them on the performance they delivered."

'Run for our money'
Cúper also refused to criticise Inter's opponents, after Leverkusen coach Thomas Hörster announced that his priority was the 1. Bundesliga, and consequently rested several key players at the BayArena. "I didn't have the impression that they were throwing the game away," said the Argentinian. "In fact they gave us a run for our money. The reason we won today is because my players were very disciplined. It had nothing to do with Leverkusen it away. Anyway, Barcelona won in Newcastle so it doesn't really matter."

'Played fantastically'
So comfortable was Inter's eventual progress that Cúper joked that his biggest worry had been the stylish somersaults with which Martins, 18, celebrated his 36th-minute goal. "I was really worried that he might injure himself performing all those back-flips," he said, adding: "Seriously, I think he played fantastically today. He was a real threat with his pace and he got the vital first goal."

Familiar foes
As Valencia CF also progressed to the knockout stages, Cúper faces the possibility of coming up against his former club when Friday's draw is made. However, the Inter coach thinks such a tie might work in favour of his new side, saying: "As you can imagine I know Valencia very well and I don't think that it would be a bad thing for us if we had to play them next. It is, however, too early to think about the next opponent now because the draw hasn't even been made."

Some positives
In contrast, Hörster does not need to worry about future European engagements after seeing his side become the first team to finish the second group stage without a single point. However, the Leverkusen coach drew some positives from the match, saying: "It was nice to see my team fight its way back into the match and try to get an equaliser for 90 minutes. It is typical of our current situation that we gifted them their first goal and conceded the second goal in the dying seconds."

'Special atmosphere'
Hörster said that it had hurt him having to treat the Champions League fixtures as test matches. "Believe me, I would have loved to been able to field Jens Nowotny, Lucio and all the others," he added, referring to his injured defenders. "It would have given us a realistic chance of winning, but that is not the situation we are in. I realise that I may never be able to feel the special atmosphere of the Champions League again." It is a measure of Leverkusen's startling decline that the new coach admitted as much.