Gervinho relishes Roma's 'great night'

• Gervinho backing Roma to "go a long way" after impressive start
• Morgan De Sanctis reckons the 5-1 win against CSKA "sends a very big message"
• Rudi Garcia says Roma "played like we wanted to play"
• Zoran Tošić puts CSKA's defeat down to "nightmare start" to Group E game

Gervinho, Roma forward
We are happy to have won tonight. We are delighted to be back in this competition and it was a game that we really wanted to win. Of course I am happy to have scored in this competition, and also to have had a hand in another goal, but the most important thing is that Roma won.

Roma can go a long way. We have an objective, to qualify for the knockout stages, and we hope we can make it. Manchester City and Bayern are very strong clubs with good teams and the games against both of them are going to be very difficult, but I have faith in our side and I believe we will qualify. But we have got a lot of respect for Bayern and Manchester City.

Morgan De Sanctis, Roma goalkeeper
Let's not say it was a shame [Roma conceded a goal] – it was a great victory and I prefer to see the glass half full. CSKA could have scored more than just the one goal in the second half and they had a great chance in the first half too. But this doesn't take anything away from the fact that Roma absolutely deserved this win. We're delighted with the goal difference which could be important, considering how even this group is.

Overall, the team played a great game, particularly in the first half when we were able to sustain a really high rhythm and repeatedly surprise our opponents. In the second half, maybe because the victory was already practically ours, we lowered the rhythm and risked conceding on many occasions and CSKA did well to take advantage of one of these.

This group is already hugely uneven as there are two sides in it – Manchester City and Bayern München – who are made to win this Champions League. What was crucial for us was that we started well, considering how strong CSKA are. Now we have got to put up as good a fight as we can. We've sent [City and Bayern] a very big message, but the messages we send them when we are up against them are going to be even bigger.

Roma coach Rudi Garcia on the sidelines©AFP/Getty Images

Rudi Garcia, Roma coach 
We played like we wanted to play. We knew that it would be possible to build good chances playing through CSKA's lines and we did that, exploiting the speed of Juan Manuel Iturbe and Gervinho. We showed good willingness, but especially we were really efficient. We settled the match very quickly, which was important; this is the best start for us in the UEFA Champions League.

I told my players to keep their minds free for playing with enthusiasm and they did that. We saw a very good Roma side. We can't feel any pressure, even if we're back in the UEFA Champions League after several years: we have to try to play every match with this enthusiasm. We have a fantastic group, my players love football and they enjoy playing together.

Zoran Tošić, CSKA forward
We knew we were going to play against a quality team and unfortunately we had a nightmare start. After that it was impossible to come back into the game; we made so many mistakes and conceded four goals. We have to forget about this result and focus on the next game, that's all we can do.

Leonid Slutski, CSKA coach
We started really badly but the problem was only in our mind, not physical; otherwise we wouldn't have ended the match like we did, growing in the last minutes. Roma are a really strong team and this match showed that we are not ready for a level like this. Having said that, if we'd pulled a goal back when they were 2-0 up, maybe we could have found further resources.