Boateng delights in proving Milan doubters wrong

Kevin-Prince Boateng told UEFA.com he "loved everything about AC Milan" after silencing the doubters with a spectacular first UEFA Champions League goal. Things might have been different for FC BATE Borisov, now six points adrift of both their Italian opponents and FC Barcelona, had Renan Bressan not been denied by Christian Abbiati moments before Zlatan Ibrahimović's opener.

Kevin-Prince Boateng, Milan midfielder
I'm very happy, it was very important for us to win. It was a good game, we did our job so everything's good. They played in two banks of four, they were playing very tight, so we didn't have a lot of space. I tried my luck a couple of times in the first half and in the end I was very happy to score.

 I'm delighted with the goal, because before the game and last week there were some negative comments made about me and some doubts [suggesting] I'm not focused on football. That's why I went out there today and wanted to prove that I am concentrated on football; so I was delighted to score.

I always work hard, I always try my best and I showed today what I can do and hopefully I'll keep doing that. I love it here, I love the team; I love everything about Milan. I'm enjoying my football here and I try to improve every day. They were playing very deep and all of a sudden they missed a great chance, which is when we woke up. There was just one mistake by Mark van Bommel but we are lucky we have a goalkeeper like [Christian] Abbiati and that save drove us on to score.

We train to play forward and press teams. We managed to press them for 60 minutes today. It was very intense, but in the end it was all good and hopefully we can keep playing like that. We're not thinking about [playing Barcelona] yet, we have a lot of games to think about before then. We'll focus on them and step by step we'll see what happens.

Antonio Nocerino, Milan midfielder
It went well for us tonight. Alberto Aquilani and I are enjoying our football and playing well together. Thanks to the coach and his staff we know exactly what we're supposed to be doing and playing with great champions who help us out and give us the chance to do everything with great simplicity. Players like Boateng, [Antonio] Cassano, Ibrahimović and Robinho make football very easy. It is great to play alongside them and we are delighted to have them, to do what we can to help them show their quality, because when they do they win us matches like they did tonight.

Marko Simić, BATE defender
We had a great chance at 0-0 and if that had gone in who knows what might have happened. It is a shame he missed because that was a key moment in the game. It is easier to play Milan than Barcelona because Milan give you more of a chance to play. I don't know where we go from here but we will give our best and we will see where it gets us. Finishing third in the group is our realistic objective and we will try hard to realise it.