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Bjelica bullish as Porto pick up the pieces

While Nenad Bjelica lauded a display by FK Austria Wien that could not be bettered, Paulo Fonseca lamented a draw that leaves FC Porto with a mountain to climb.

Austria goalkeeper Heinz Lindner repels Porto
Austria goalkeeper Heinz Lindner repels Porto ©AFP/Getty Images

Paulo Fonseca, Porto coach
We shouldn't have conceded in the opening stages and we should have scored when we had the opportunity – we gave them a 45-minute head start. We had several chances, but completely failed in our objective for this match, which was to win. Football is about emotion, feelings: tonight their goal hit us hard and we couldn't react the right way.

In the second half we had a great response. A team with pretentions of going through to the next phase of the Champions League have to win their home matches. It is hard for us to enter the last game in this situation. We had the chance to enter this game depending only on ourselves, but now we have to win in Madrid [against Club Atlético de Madrid] and see what happens in the other game.

Nenad Bjelica, Austria Wien coach
What we delivered today was the absolute extent of our capabilities so huge compliments to the team and the way they handled themselves. They fought until the last minute and really believed they could achieve a real upset here. It was an exemplary display. I'm satisfied with the point and happy we finally managed to score a goal.

Despite taking an early lead we knew this game would be very difficult for us. The point belongs to the team. [Goalkeeper Heinz] Lindner is in great shape at the moment, but the rest of the defence was strong as well. Porto have four or five players that are two metres tall and it's simply not possible to defend every set piece against them.

We are now eliminated from the competition but that means we have no pressure whatsoever for our final game against Zenit, where we will try to record a good result. Hopefully we'll have a sold-out stadium. We want the win against Zenit at home. I liked the way we played today, this scheme works and we will use it going forward.

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