Del Piero glad to be back with a bang

Memorable match
On his 80th appearance in the competition, Del Piero broke the deadlock 14 minutes from time with a long range free-kick which swerved viciously before veering past Vyacheslav Malafeev. It was Del Piero's 38th UEFA Champions League goal and, having waited two years for the chance to showcase his skills at this level once more, he celebrated it with an uncharacteristic somersault and scream of relief.

'Pressure'
"There was a lot of emotion out there as this was our first match back in the Champions League after so long," he told uefa.com. "In front of our home fans it was a night charged with emotion. There was a lot of pressure to perform and I must say that despite the difficulty of the situation we coped really well with what was asked of us. We closed them down well, which meant that they didn't create many chances. We created one or two chances and it was a hard-earned win.

'Crucial victory'
"I hope that this win proves to be a crucial victory. It's always important to get off to a winning start, even though we know that all the matches at his level are very difficult. But we know full well that you can win or lose against anyone in the Champions League and we've already seen so-called shocks this week, so we're just going to take each match as it comes, one step at a time."

Commanding performance
Mohamed Sissoko, who gave a commanding performance in the Bianconeri midfield, providing the brawn and drive to complement Del Piero's craft, put the win down to experience. "Our experience made the difference, particularly in the case of Del Piero and his goal," he said. "We played alright but going home with the three points is the most important thing. Someone like Del Piero is vital to us; he spends a lot of time with the younger players. He talks to everybody, is a very good captain and leads by example by scoring remarkable goals."

'Del Piero key'
Christian Poulsen was himself unfortunate not to score, when his back-header was denied by a superb reaction save from Malafeev, but the Danish international was grateful to Del Piero for going one better two minutes later, saying: "I don't know if it was a deserved win, it could have gone either way but Del Piero was key. He's a fantastic player and it was such a good free-kick. I watched the ball after he hit it and the movement in the air was incredible. He's a really important player for us."