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Fonseca rues misses, Simeone looks ahead

Though his side hit the post four times and missed a penalty Paulo Fonseca refused to label eliminated FC Porto unlucky, as Diego Simeone looked to the next phase.

Raúl García celebrates his opener as Diego Simeone looks on
Raúl García celebrates his opener as Diego Simeone looks on ©AFP/Getty Images

Diego Simeone, Atlético coach
We had a very good first half. We were clinical and we were patient. We started the match trying to play down the wings but it was not possible. We changed our strategy and the team began to feel better. We suffered because Porto played well. Finally, we did well despite them hitting the woodwork. Goalposts are part of the pitch.

The team can play well or badly but never lose their will to win and that is really important in order to keep improving. I want Óliver [Torres] playing like he did after 15 minutes. He played the match we expected from him and we expect him to carry on like this. Adrián [López] is an important player for us. We expect great things from him. We are not better than any other team and the next round will be very difficult and even. 

Paulo Fonseca, Porto coach
It is a fact that we could have left with another result, but when you ship goals like the ones we suffered tonight, against the run of play, it is impossible to go through in a competition like this. I think we created some problems for Atlético that they had not encountered before in this stadium this season. We hit the post four times and we missed a penalty, but I do not like to give excuses. We are out not because we were unlucky but because we were incompetent. 

We did not play well in defence and Atlético did well in attack. We practise penalty kicks of course. Josué never failed before. Maybe his failure was emotional, not technical. We failed mostly at home. It was not only this game that cost us qualification, even though if we had won tonight we would be in the last 16. It is too early to talk about the UEFA Europa League. There will be several good teams in the next stage of that competition and we will be one of them. 

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