Jesus praise for Benfica's 'great game'
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
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Jorge Jesus said victory against Celtic FC was reward for SL Benfica's "good recent form" while Neil Lennon pointed out the losers "live to fight another day" on matchday six.
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Jorge Jesus, Benfica coach
We had a great game, carrying on our good recent form. Celtic have been lucky in the Champions League and today once again they did not create anything and could have been three or four goals behind. Their goal was from a set piece, which we knew they were strong on. In my opinion they can get through but Benfica and Spartak are stronger than Celtic. They beat Barcelona and because of that they are in a good position.
Our aim tonight was achieved because with this win we are still in Europe. Now we will go to Barcelona to chase qualification. We will not change because we have a game plan we have worked on for years. Barcelona are the best team in the world. There is one player [Messi] who makes the difference but there are plenty of others.
Neil Lennon, Celtic manager
I'm disappointed with the two goals we conceded, particularly the second. We looked as though we had cleared it but we weren't picking up as we were coming out. I was disappointed with the lack of composure about us at times, nervousness on the ball. We got a good goal and had chances towards the end to get something out of the game, but we get one more crack at it.
They're a young team and this is a hard place to come. I thought we got a little bit of a lift when we got the goal, but in the second half we never really kept the ball as much as we'd have liked. I never really saw the [winning] goal coming but if you keep giving the ball away cheaply in dangerous areas the pressure's going to come. They got the goal and we almost nicked a draw at the end, but we live to fight another day.
We know what we have to do and that's to beat Spartak at home and we still have a good chance of qualifying. [The suspended Vincent Wanyama] will be a huge loss because he's been magnificent for us. He had another fine game tonight and he'll be a big miss. Hopefully, we'll have a few players back and I'm hoping the squad will be a bit stronger. At the minute there's a few of them running on empty and we're going to need some boys from the background to come forward now.
