Lucescu laments late turnaround

Beaten coach Mircea Lucescu could only contemplate what might have been after FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi scored twice in the final stages to snatch three Group C points from the grasp of FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, saying that the Catalan club "didn't cause us any danger" before they equalised. His opposite number, Josep Guardiola, admitted to being "very proud" of the turnaround against "strong" opposition but urged his players to eradicate the mistakes which allowed the hosts to almost cause a surprise result.

Mircea Lucescu, Shakhtar coach
Barcelona didn't cause us any danger before their first goal. Yes, our goalkeeper [Andriy Pyatov] made a mistake [for the first goal] and it is the Champions League where you end up paying for your mistakes. Before the game we tried to explain to the players how dangerous Barcelona were at crossing from wide. Our players were good tonight. We had many goal opportunities – about 15, I think. In the Spanish Liga Barcelona always have 20 to 25 chances to score, and tonight we shut off all ways to our goal so they didn't create anything until the very final minutes. There are lots of young players in our team and, although there are in Barcelona's team too, they are playing in Liga which is a much stronger competition.

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach
As we expected this match was very difficult. Shakhtar are very strong and confident – they are guided by a very experienced coach. They are almost unbeatable on home soil. That's why I am very proud of such a great result. This match illustrated our mistakes and I hope we will be able to work on them and never make them again. Now we need to recover quickly before the next game in the Liga [against Club Atlético de Madrid on Saturday]. In the first half we tried to bolster the flanks with our midfielders and full-backs in order to create more space for the strikers but it was not so easy to achieve. But, generally speaking, we were attacking very well and had most of the possession. It was essential for us not to stop after we equalised. We continued in the same vein and were rewarded with victory.