We rounded off the Champions League group phase with a 2-1 victory over Girona thanks to a special effort from Ethan Nwaneri.
The 17-year-old, who was making his first start in the competition, curled in a superb strike shortly after Jorginho had converted from the spot to bring us back on level terms.
After the contest in Spain, our manager was asked about the performance, progression to the round of 16 and Nwaneri's sparkling display.
Here’s a full transcript of his post-match media conference…
on Ethan Nwaneri's performance:
That’s what we love about him, he’s willing to take the initiative to make things happen. He’s very aggressive when he’s got the ball and so confident because before that he had another action, a very similar one, he made the right choice, he went for it, he has the capacity to finish from every angle basically and it was a very important goal.
on his finishing ability:
It’s very natural for him, you can see the way he takes the touches, how he beats people and then the technique he’s got, he’s so precise in his finishing, put him a lot of times in that situation and the outcome will be good.
on David Raya's absence:
He certainly could not play, he’s injured and that’s it.
on what his injury is:
Let’s see how it goes.
on signing a player in January:
I cannot talk about any of that, my confidence is that we have an amazing club and people working always to try to improve and let’s see what happens.
on if Neto would deputise in Raya's potential absence:
Yes, that’s why he’s here to do that job and he’s done it for 20-odd years in his career.
on Neto's performance:
I’m very happy first of all that he played, it’s been seven months since he played his last match and it’s not easy so very happy that he played and we won the game.
on finishing in the top eight of the Champions League earning us more money:
I’m sure that they’re really happy with that and the fact we won today as well because the financial incentive is obviously there.
on our four potential opponents in the next round:
Let's see. We love watching Champions League matches. We're going to have the privilege to be sitting at home and analysing and watching who we can face afterwards. So, pretty good at the moment. Things are going well.
on how impressive we've been in the Champions League so far:
Yeah, I never felt anything like this because it's so tough. I think we won the last four games in the Champions League. That's why you have to win football matches in these competitions. It's very demanding, we played a group that was very tricky and difficult. But overall, I think, as you said, the team has been very consistent regardless of all the issues that we have to face and hopefully, more of a belief in that dressing room that we're a good team and we can face anybody and still perform well in games.
on 'putting our feet up' for the playoffs:
Yeah, obviously two games, with the schedule that we have it’s a lot. And, again, it's time to work those opponents, and there'll be more time for us to prepare and focus on other competitions. So, I think it's a really positive thing.
on the professionalism we showed:
I didn't like the noise and the conversation everything was about if you do that. If, if, if, if, if. And I just throw that all away. If, if we win, and if we do, and we are better than the opposition, we're gonna be there for sure. And we can be second. That should be the only objective. Nothing else. And that's why I demanded the players today that we play with that mentality because there is a lot of messages intrinsic in every performance. And a team has to face the game always with the intention to win, and today we have done that.
on not knowing the other clubs' results tonight:
I was interested honestly in the focus and the interest because we cannot control it. It wasn’t what we had to do and how we could perform and be better than the opponent to beat them. That was it.
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