Gross enjoys 'spectacular result'

A delighted FC Basel 1893 coach Christian Gross praised his side, and his "incredible" goalkeeper Franco Costanzo in particular, as they remained resilient to earn their first point in UEFA Champions League Group C with a 1-1 draw away to FC Barcelona. Josep Guardiola's contentment at his side's progression to the knockout stages was tempered by a thigh injury to influential midfielder Andrés Iniesta.

Christian Gross, Basel coach
It was a spectacular result for us tonight and the important thing is that the team was compact. I knew we couldn't give Barcelona any space and the team did well in carrying that out during the 90 minutes. We kept calm and with Eren Derdiyok's goal we achieved the draw. Our last three results haven't been good but this one serves us well. I don't think Josep Guardiola underestimated us. We didn't give them any chances and Franco Costanzo was incredible.

Josep Guardiola, Barcelona coach
I'm not upset at the team tonight. The good news is that we qualified, but we had problems getting into the game. I told my players to be patient and open up spaces but our movement of the ball wasn't good, while Basel also defended well. We got there in the end, but maybe we should look at how we got there. I think we got into a mindset where we were thinking we only had to turn up to get the points. It is unusual to be 4-0 up 30 minutes into the game – I have been in football for a long time so I know that these games are always more difficult than they seem to be. If you are not playing well, whatever the opposition, it will always be difficult to win. That is a message I want to stress. I don't like the fact we drew, but maybe the result will do us some good. It is only November and we have qualified for the next round with two games to spare, so that's a positive. Andrés Iniesta's injury is very bad news for us. It's never good to have an injured player so it's sad news tonight. He's an important player for us but injuries are a part of football.