Mancini has a happy birthday

Roberto Mancini, Inter coach
It was a nice birthday gift from my team because it was not an easy game at all. We made it look easy at the end of the game but it was very difficult, at least until we scored the first goal. Fenerbahçe were very organised and are very good at keeping possession with their technically skilled players. It was very difficult to break through and everything changed only after breaking the deadlock. Alex is very difficult to mark because he moves a lot from attack to a deeper position, that's why I fielded [Cristian] Chivu in midfield so he could help the defenders when Alex was moving back. [Zlatan] Ibrahimović had another great game even though he had flu. I'm very happy to have qualified with one game to play because now we can focus a bit more on the domestic league until February. It's also very good to finish first because it can be a small advantage in the knockout stage. I also want to congratulate [Luis Antonio] Jiménez on his first goal in the UEFA Champions League. I will have to rest a few players against PSV [Eindhoven] but in our squad there is not much difference between players so we will go there to win the game. However I think Fenerbahçe will beat CSKA and will qualify regardless of our result.

Zico, Fenerbahçe coach
We played well only for 45 minutes when we were very well-balanced. We started the second half well and had a good chance through Alex. But then we conceded the first goal, we lost our calm and started to miss many easy passes. Against a team like Inter you risk conceding many goals if you play like that. They scored three and could have scored even more in the final part of the game. This game was important but not decisive, the decisive one is against CSKA in December. However we have to be calm and confident because we are in this situation only by our own merits and I think we can make the decisive step against CSKA. When you concede a goal you have to react because a match lasts 90 minutes, not 45. I think we have to play as we did in the first half today but then we didn't have to give up once we were 1-0 down.