Plaudits for Danny after Zenit progress

FC Zenit goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin hailed the impact of playmaker Danny after his two goals set the Russian side on their way to a 4-2 home win against FC Paços de Ferreira in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off. "Danny was fantastic," said Lodygin, who also warned Zenit that they would have to tighten up defensively. Paços de Ferreira forward Rui Caetano echoed that praise for Danny while admitting that for the Portuguese newcomers, beaten 8-3 on aggregate, the tie was lost in the first leg.

Yuri Lodygin, Zenit goalkeeper
Our main aim was to qualify for the group stage and we managed to do that after our victory today and we will continue to prepare for this. I was unhappy about the two goals we conceded, especially the second as I could have come out and collected the cross. However, Danny was fantastic for us and scored two superb goals.

This season under Luciano Spalletti we are scoring a lot more goals, and although we are also conceding a few more, as time goes on we will get better and our play will be more consistent. We know we have to keep on improving as we will have much more difficult tests ahead of us.

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, Zenit midfielder
Of course it would be great to be drawn with FC Bayern München, as it's always interesting for me to play against teams who I used to play for. I don't think it's worth talking about which teams we would not like to meet – it's all about the luck of the draw. As I said, I would like to play against Bayern, but then again if we were drawn against a Ukrainian side, that would also be great.

Rui Caetano, Paços de Ferreira forward
In the end we just did not defend well enough and it's really tough to try and achieve the result you want when you concede eight goals in two matches. However, I thought we produced some good football going forward and we just need to keep working and improve. We are looking forward to playing in the UEFA Europa League, but on the other hand, we are disappointed with our displays in these two big games with Zenit.

I think the turning point was back in Porto when we managed to equalise at 1-1 but then conceded quickly and then let in another two goals. Zenit have a number of great players, but for me Danny is the pick of the bunch. He's very quick and is a constant threat around the penalty area.