Bernabéu rises to salute Del Piero

Both Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri and his opposite number Bernd Schuster praised Real Madrid CF's supporters for the standing ovation they gave match-winner Alessandro Del Piero at the Santiago Bernabéu, whose two goals sealed a 2-0 win to send the Italian side through to the knockout rounds. While Ranieri lauded a "great result", though, Schuster described it as a "great disappointment" and was left to focus on Madrid's remaining games as his side look to join Juve in the last 16.

Claudio Ranieri, Juventus coach 
The Bernabéu is a good stadium for me because I had already won here with Valencia [CF] and [Club] Atlético de Madrid. Our main goal was to qualify for the knockout stage and we did it with two games to spare. The next goal is to finish first. We achieved a great result tonight and we won with a typical Italian performance. I don't care if people say we played Catenaccio style. We scored two good goals and we did not concede. It's not easy for any team to leave this stadium without conceding. We entered into a microwave oven but they were unable to cook us.

Del Piero once again was superb but the whole team played a fantastic game. Congratulations to the Madrid fans who gave a standing ovation to Del Piero. It was fully deserved, a great gesture. The Champions League is a competition many of my players are just starting to get to know. We will see how far we can go. Two weeks ago everybody thought we were in crisis, but the squad has reacted really well and we have earned some great results despite missing several players. We have to continue taking one game at a time, but if we continue like this we can surely achieve something important.

Bernd Schuster, Madrid coach
The result is a great disappointment because it doesn't reflect the match. Juventus had two shots in the whole game and scored two goals. We were not as efficient. We missed the target with our best opportunities. We had chances and in the UEFA Champions League you can't afford to miss them. We knew Juventus would be difficult opponents, and even more so when they take the lead, but my team tried to score throughout the match. Now we have to think about our two remaining games and we'll see if we finish first or second in our group. I enjoyed the ovation given to Alessandro Del Piero because he is a great player, he has proved his class and the Bernabéu recognised this fact.