Bento admires Sporting's spirit in adversity

Paulo Bento, Sporting coach
Sporting did their job in the first 30 minutes. We dominated and created a few chances. We controlled the game in this period as Basel didn't create any danger. We weren't efficient in the first half but the second was different. It was a deserved win that should have ended with more goals considering the great opportunities that we created. This is a victory for my players, who showed great character during the 90 minutes, especially in the tougher moments of the game. I don't agree that we didn't play well in the first half. After 30 minutes the team was a little anxious as they were being booed by our own supporters. It is not a normal thing. Sometimes they help us a lot but this time, with the great personality and character of my players, we managed to overcome that. After the opening goal with had more space to play, despite also giving some space for Basel. We did our job with quality and in a consistent way.

Christian Gross, Basel coach
We started the match very well and didn't make any mistakes in defence. But at the beginning of the second half Sporting improved their game and were quicker with the ball when Simon Vukčević came on. We were lucky in the [Derlei] effort that hit the post but were unfortunate in the moment when we conceded the first goal, and Benjamin Huggel could have equalised in the 68th minute. I'm pleased with our performance because we played better than against Shakhtar. We have to improve but I hope we can show what we worth. In the end Sporting deserved to win.