Lyon's Garde satisfied with narrow success

Rémi Garde, Lyon coach
We knew we had to be wary of APOEL, especially as they won their group. They showed that, although they are not a household name, they are a well-organised team who defend well and pose a threat on the break.

I think we lacked freshness in the second half. We needed a bit of boost to keep up the tempo of the first half. My squad is at full steam, I can change things round from one match to another and I'll keep doing so. We're just at the half-time of our tie; nothing is settled yet.

The game went as we expected. We tried to dictate the pace and tried to ensure we didn't concede an away goal. We would have liked to score more goals; hopefully we won't regret that in the second leg. They will have to come at us, which will give us chances on the counterattack. We'll need to be strong mentally and make sure we are prepared.

Ivan Jovanović, APOEL coach
They were better than us, we have to accept that. Their win was deserved. My players worked hard and we have the second leg. We will do our best to turn this around but Lyon have an important advantage.

We are actually quite satisfied with the result. We have played better than we did tonight but often your performance is affected by your opponents, too. They were strong, worked hard and did not allow us to play our normal game.