'The tribute from our fans made me proud'

Udinese Calcio may have bowed out of the UEFA Cup but coach Pasquale Marino said that wiping out Werder Bremen's 3-1 quarter-final first-leg lead before the break, prior to conceding two second-half goals, felt "almost like a victory" following a Stadio Friuli ovation. Bremen will take on Hamburger SV in the semi-finals and Thomas Schaaf admitted his side nearly blew their advantage.

Pasquale Marino, Udinese coach
I would like to highlight what our fans did after the final whistle when they celebrated with the players almost as if it was a victory. They understood that we gave everything we had. We tried until the end but football is like that. Small moments can decide a tie at this level; sometimes you are lucky, tonight we were not. The tribute from our fans, however, made me proud. We made history by reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-finals for the first time and in my opinion we deserved to go even further because we created loads of chances in the 180 minutes, many more than Werder. We played very well even in Bremen, we are bitter about the final score but proud about the way we played. The UEFA Cup was a very good experience for us, we grew as a team by facing strong sides from different football cultures and I think we were always true to the importance of this competition. We played 12 wonderful games and I'm delighted with what my players did in this competition.

Thomas Schaaf, Bremen coach
We made it a very exciting evening. The first half went completely wrong, we had the same problems as we had in the first leg in Bremen. My team left Udinese too much space and were too meek in one-on-ones. The second half went much better and we scored the necessary goals. We can be satisfied that we went through, but the cheering is not too joyful, as we made it such hard work after the good result from the home game. But now we can look forward to two exciting matches against Hamburger SV. It was certainly not a bluff that Diego was injured before the game, it was exactly that way. Fortunately for us he was able to play.