Slomka applauds point well made

FC Schalke 04 coach Mirko Slomka was delighted with the heart his side showed in recovering from a disappointing 1-0 weekend loss to FC Energie Cottbus to claim a goalless draw with Chelsea FC. The Group B points may have been shared, but Slomka felt Schalke had "won a lot of individual battles" and Chelsea boss Avram Grant admitted the home team "made life difficult for us".

Mirko Slomka, Schalke coach
We responded really well to the loss at Cottbus. We fought with passion and determination and although some will question why we didn't attack more in the closing stages we know how dangerous Chelsea always are and were determined not to give them a chance on the counterattack. We created a number of genuine chances and won a lot of individual battles and you have to applaude my players for that. We tried to learn from the first leg when we failed to stop their defenders from getting forward. This time we turned it around and our right and left-backs contributed a lot to the attack.

Avram Grant, Chelsea manager
We wanted to win but it's not easy to win at Schalke as they're a strong side. It's not a bad result but was not our best performance, although I don't think we played that badly. We're in a position where everything is in our own hands, and we're very happy with that. The Premier League is not the Champions League - this is an away game in European competition. Schalke are very strong at home, we knew that, and that's one reason why it wasn't our best game. They made life difficult for us. We are still first in the group, while Schalke threw everything at us because it was their last chance to qualify.