Guardiola savours welcome win

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach 
I can't deny that victory is very important for us. I didn't like the match against Racing at the weekend and, as we did then, we also created lots of chances tonight which we didn't make the most of. With the first goal we took advantage of a defensive mistake, but on the whole I was more impressed with the team tonight than the one that played at the weekend. I don't know if this win lightens the pressure on us, but what I do know is that I'm happy with victory – a win always helps.

I always expect the best of our rivals and Sporting are a very good team. We created lots of good chances from the start of the game as our objective was to push the team forward, right from the back with Dani Alves. Sporting tried to play and be an active part of the match but they were never really in it. They didn't create many problems for us and we were able to score the third goal. I never considered the chance of Sporting equalising when we were 2-1 up.

Paulo Bento, Sporting coach 
In the first half we made a few defensive mistakes and Barcelona were simply too close for comfort. We were the weaker side and we couldn't get the ball away from our area. Rafael Márquez's first goal was especially painful because it came straight from a corner, but in the second half we played better, edged upfield, only for Barça to score their second goal when we were playing at our best.

If the match was replayed we would create more chances. Our plans for tonight didn't work, especially in midfield where we lost the ball too much. We still have the same objective as we had before the defeat tonight, and that is simply to win games. We want three points against FC Basel in our next game and we want to reach the next round. We have to carry on fighting towards our main objective.