Basel maturity leaves Vogel satisfied at Benfica

Raúl José, Benfica assistant coach
We played against a strong team that are good at moving the ball. It was not by chance that they drew at Manchester United. We knew it would be a difficult match. It ended with a draw and it was not what we wanted.

We wanted to secure qualification tonight but in the end we are still in the race and in a good position to qualify. We are going to Manchester to play for first place in the group. We are going to play to win there.

Heiko Vogel, Basel coach
This performance and the result reminded me of the 3-3 draw at Manchester United. We were a bit more mature today. After going behind early on we kept calm and believed we would get chances. We knew they would come at us, but we wore them down with our defending and by keeping possession.

Maybe conceding early on was good for us because we played with freedom and the pressure of not conceding was already gone. This point is not only important for our prospects in the group but also for the team's confidence, and I can only pay them a big compliment.

Marco Streller and Alexander Frei were both missing for us tonight, but Jacques Zoua and Scott Chipperfield were very strong replacements. It says a lot about our character, the way we pulled together to overcome our setbacks.

My team deserve great credit for the way we were able to withstand the early pressure they put us under, and for continuing to attack. Benjamin Huggel was instrumental in our recovery; he led the team well and scored a beautiful goal.