Blanc underwhelmed by indifferent Paris display

Laurent Blanc, Paris coach
In the first half we began badly. My instructions were to attack and dictate the play. We were not aggressive enough, much less than I expected. We left too much room for this Bayer team. Consequently they broke the deadlock. It woke us up, we levelled, but if I remember the first half, Salvatore [Sirigu] kept us afloat.

In the second half it was a little better, but tonight Paris did not deliver a memorable performance. It's hard to tell your team to ignore the result of the first leg – it's complicated. We always had this in our minds, that we still had this four-goal lead. A Champions League game is still a game at a very, very high level. Today it was not a great performance from us, but we were powerful enough to win the match.

Sami Hyypiä, Leverkusen coach
I hope everyone saw that we delivered a good performance. I am quite happy with the attitude my team showed against Paris. Overall, I feel we can leave here with our heads [held] high. Coming into the match nobody believed in us, but I am glad we showed that we can perform.

It was important to show the right attitude today and we will take a lot of positives from this. This match should give us some confidence for the Bundesliga, where we have a tough game against Bayern München at the weekend.

But it is still a defeat and obviously you never enjoy defeats. Our mentality is that we want to win every match that we play. Will we be back next year? It only depends on us. If we get the job done in the Bundesliga – and our fate is in our hands – then I am sure we will return next season.