Cosmi laments missed chance

Udinese Calcio coach Serse Cosmi was determined to look at things positively after his side slipped agonisingly out of the UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 home loss to FC Barcelona. The hosts were all set for the last 16 until goals by Santiago Ezquerro and Andrés Iniesta in the last five minutes left Cosmi's men thinking about what could have been - and Werder Bremen, 5-1 victors against Panathinaikos FC, as the Group C runners-up.

Serse Cosmi, Udinese coach
Our season can't be judged on the last five minutes of this unlucky game. We tried to do our best against a great team but it wasn't enough. In this kind of match, where so many important players are not fit, you need to be a bit lucky and we weren't. We missed a few players and couldn't give our best. The UEFA Cup is still a good opportunity, but our supporters deserved to go through. I'm really sorry for them, for the club and for the players. But now we have to look at the future and think positively.

Henk Ten Cate, Barcelona assistant coach
As I said yesterday, we wanted to win the game, and to respect the other clubs in our group. This Barcelona team is one which always play to win, and I think we proved that again tonight. I'm sorry for Udinese, but we deserved the win. We should have scored earlier, and maybe we were a bit lucky. But this is football, when I thought we shouldn't have won, we scored. We are playing great football, in Spain as much as in the Champions League. And I want to thank those players who don't play so often - when they are called up, they are always ready.