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Bonucci and Matri proud of businesslike Juve

Leonardo Bonucci thanked Juventus scorers Alessandro Matri and Fabio Quagliarella for their defensive work against Celtic FC. "We were calm and ready to strike," Matri said.

Bonucci and Matri proud of businesslike Juve
Bonucci and Matri proud of businesslike Juve ©UEFA.com

Alessandro Matri and Fabio Quagliarella scored the goals which allowed Juventus to beat Celtic FC 2-0 in the return leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie. However, the two forwards earned praised also for their defensive contributions as the Bianconeri reached the quarter-finals with their fifth consecutive European victory, all without conceding. "We thank our forwards," centre-back Leonardo Bonucci told UEFA.com. "We attack with 11 men and defend with 11 – this is our main secret." Meanwhile, after repeating his first-leg trick of opening the scoring against Celtic, Matri told UEFA.com: "I'm very happy it all came together."

Leonardo Bonucci, Juventus defender
It is really satisfying [not to concede] but credit goes to the entire team because we attack with 11 men and defend with 11 – this is our main secret. Once again we thank our forwards, because tonight they did a tremendous job in defending and they also scored the goals that allowed us to stay a bit more relaxed. It was quite difficult to remain focused [after the 3-0 first-leg win], but the team proved to be up to the task once again.

Celtic are a good team – it is no accident they got this far in the competition. They have very good players, but we were starting with the advantage of a very good result in the first leg. We created a lot of chances tonight as well, while I think they only had one clear opportunity.

From now on it doesn't make any difference which team we are going to face. The best eight teams in Europe will still be in the competition and Juventus are among them.

Alessandro Matri, Juventus striker
I'm very happy it all came together tonight – my goal and the victory for the team. We played a good game, handled it very well and did what we had to do to reach the quarter-finals. We approached the game in the right way, taking to the pitch as if it were still 0-0 – even though we knew we had a 3-0 lead. We were calm and ready to strike in the right moments. We haven't conceded any goals in our last five games – these are important figures. We have to maintain this in the future, but now we have an important game in Serie A and our next objective must be that.

I train every day with Fabio [Quagliarella] so we know each other's movement very well and I must say I was very comfortable playing alongside him tonight. I often score when I play with him so he must also be bringing me some luck. The stadium was almost sold out, our fans were exceptional. This must be a strength for us because in this stadium you can really feel the support of the fans and they can give us a huge help in the upcoming games too. As in the round of 16, there are only strong teams in the quarter-finals so now we must think about our next game in Serie A and then see what happens in the Champions League.