'Bring on the big guns' says Lazio's Sculli

After reaching the UEFA Europa League round of 32 thanks to a 2-0 defeat of Group D winners Sporting Clube de Portugal and a favour from elimimnated FC Zürich in the other match, S.S. Lazio goalscorer Giuseppe Sculli told UEFA.com that the Swiss side's first goal against FC Vaslui was "a real boost" for his side. Along with Sporting defender Tiago Ilori, the midfielder is now looking forward to Friday's draw in the hope that his side will be pitted against one of the Manchester clubs, saying: "Bring them on."

Giuseppe Sculli, Lazio forward
It's very strange to play in a game like that as we had to win and hope that Zürich also played a good game but that's exactly how it went and now we are very happy with qualification.

I heard some noise from the stands and I immediately asked what happened to the people on our bench and they confirmed that Zürich had scored. It was a great boost for us on the pitch; we told ourselves that if we managed to earn three points we could really qualify.

I think I scored a good goal. It was not easy because their goalkeeper was rushing out and I didn't have much time. Fortunately I managed to control the ball well and place my shot. In the draw there will be teams like Manchester City and Manchester United: bring them on. I would love to play a game like that.

Albano Bizzarri, Lazio goalkeeper
It was a strange game because we did not know which way the other game was going to go. Fortunately Vaslui lost and we are through; we are very happy and I think it was deserved over the six games. I made a couple of good saves, especially the second [from a free-kick by Valeri Bozhinov] but what really counts is the victory and the performance of the team. As regards myself I'm happy because I had just returned from an injury and I had not trained much ahead of this game.

Fortunately I was very comfortable on the pitch anyway. Now there will be big teams in the draw, teams who are used to playing in the UEFA Champions League and Lazio have not played in games like those for a few years now. So it will be great for us and for the fans.

Tiago Ilori, Sporting defender
We were already first in the group but we still wanted to win this game. We were motivated against a great team in a great stadium but we just didn't win. We are proud to have finished first, we reached our main objective quite early on, but coming into this game we wanted to win it and maybe it could have gone a bit better.

I'm not sure it had anything to do with motivation, it was just one of those games in which I don't really understand how they scored. In my opinion it was offside, but anyway we didn't do enough to win the game. I'd love to play against United. Even just being there to watch the game against them would be very exciting.