Sneijder heartened by strong Galatasaray finish

Encouraged by Galatasaray AŞ's second-half display in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea FC, Wesley Sneijder hopes the Turkish side will play on the front foot from the off in the return leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie in three weeks' time.

The Dutch international was at a loss to explain why Roberto Mancini's team "only took matters into our hands after falling behind" to Fernando Torres's early strike – yet was confident they can score in London to cancel out Chelsea's away goal.

Wesley Sneijder, Galatasaray midfielder
We would have preferred to go to London with a different result, but it's better to go with a 1-1 draw than a 1-0 defeat. It's difficult to accept the difference [in performance] between the first and second halves. Not that we showed them too much respect, but we only took matters into our hands after falling behind.

I wish we could have avoided conceding a goal. Maybe Galatasaray have a couple of players lacking some experience at this level, because after all we're talking about the best 16 teams in Europe. In the second half we showed we deserve to be among the top teams. I hope we can start the return [match] the way we finished this game. Therefore every player needs to be at their very best. We need to score in London and I know we have the capacity to do so.

Aurélien Chedjou, Galatasaray defender
We played against a very strong team and everything is still possible for the return game. It will be difficult at Stamford Bridge, but let's hope we can surprise them. Playing in defence against forwards like Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres it is vital not to make any mistakes. I hadn't played for three weeks so I got a bit tired and therefore decided to keep things simple, which maybe helped in a way.

Scoring a goal is, of course, a bonus, but to qualify we'll have to score in west London as well – it's as simple as that. Maybe we showed a bit too much respect to Chelsea in the first half. That's what the coach told us during the break. We have to learn from this and start the return in London with more ambition. I played directly against Eden Hazard, who I know really well from six years together at LOSC Lille. During the game we were both focused, but it was nice to catch up afterwards.

Didier Drogba, Galatasaray forward
I've been living with this game ever since it became clear we would face my former club. Sometimes it felt like it was Didier Drogba against Chelsea, so intense was the media attention on me these last couple of days. In that way the return match at Stamford Bridge will be even more special, playing at the ground where I experienced such good times. But we're not there yet. Even though tonight I was on the opposing team it was nice to see that my old side is doing well.