Upbeat Fink aiming high for Basel

Not even AS Roma's victory against FC Bayern München could temper FC Basel 1893 coach Thorsten Fink's joy after a 1-0 win at home to CFR 1907 Cluj ensured his side would be playing European football after the winter break. Victory confirmed they will finish no lower than third in UEFA Champions League Group E and their hopes of advancing to the round of 16 would have been greater still had Fink's former club Bayern not thrown away a two-goal lead in Rome. The Basel coach, though, had plenty of positives to take from the evening.

Thorsten Fink, Basel coach
It was important to win tonight to secure third place and that's what we did. We played well and were the better side, but failed to score the second goal. That is the only negative thing I can say about my team, otherwise I am very pleased.

Our chances of finishing second are very small, but we want to push ourselves and believe in that small chance. We have achieved our first goal – to keep playing in Europe after the winter break. A coach is always pleased when his team does not concede a goal and I never felt the other side would score. The joy about being sure of European football outweighs my anger at Bayern's defeat.

Sorin Cârţu, Cluj coach
The Swiss side were better than us today and fully deserved their victory. Taking into consideration the five rounds played so far, Basel have been better than us and deserve to qualify for the UEFA Europa League at least, and why not for the [next round of the] UEFA Champions League? Our players are very tired. It's very hard for them to play at the same level in the championship, domestic cup and the UEFA Champions League. You could see that today.