Salerno salutes 'beautiful' Italy display

Pasquale Salerno was delighted with the quality of his side's performance after Italy clinched a berth in the semi-finals of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship for the first time since 2005 following a 2-1 win against France. The Azzurrini join group winners Switzerland in the last four after Dany Ryser's charges held titleholders Spain to a third straight 0-0 draw. Ryser paid tribute to the efforts of both teams while Spain's Ginés Meléndez was at least satisfied to qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria for finishing third with three 0-0 draws.

Italy 2-1 France
Pasquale Salerno, Italy coach
Today we faced a team that played a very high-tempo game along with us, something we had not seen against Spain or Switzerland. It was our most beautiful game. I had a great time sitting on the bench watching all these players compete on the pitch. I'm satisfied that we won, as it could have ended a draw. Both our teams had scoring opportunities. I am extremely happy because I always told the boys to keep the faith. Our main objective was to qualify for the World Cup and we achieved it thanks to a great core of players with a great work ethic. The difference was the number of chances we've had compared to the number of goals we've scored. In the first half the game was very balanced. We had a few opportunities, so did France. In the second half there was a bit of confusion following the goal. We also conceded a penalty against Switzerland but I think the penalty was the turning point.

Philippe Bergeroo, France coach
I think they really bothered us in the air. We knew Italy had a very good team, very mature. My only regret is the 20 minutes after our goal where the team slacked off, which has become a habit. There was good atmosphere of fair play. I wish Pasquale Salerno luck to win the competition so we can say we were defeated by the European champions.

Switzerland 0-0 Spain
Dany Ryser, Switzerland coach
I'm sad that Spain haven't made the semi-finals. The Spanish team was very good – the best in our group I think. I am very happy that we've reached the semi-finals on our own and have respect for my team. We are first in our group and can now look forward to the semi-finals. We thank [the organisers] for the good atmosphere here and the very good organisation of the whole tournament. We're not thinking about who we would like to play yet in the last four.

Ginés Meléndez, Spain coach
First of all we want to congratulate the organisation of this tournament which has been great, and also offer our congratulations to Switzerland and wish them luck in the next stage. We wanted to qualify for the World Cup which we've done and we thought we'd done enough to qualify for the semi-finals but we couldn't quite manage that which we're sad about and also for sporting director Fernando Hierro who came over for this game.