Rusescu hails Steaua's 'great victory' over Chelsea

Raul Rusescu hailed a "great victory" for FC Steaua Bucureşti against Chelsea FC and saluted the part the home supporters played in the 1-0 first-leg success. The match winner hopes it will prove enough to propel his team into the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals, while Petr Čech's belief in his team remains intact despite defeat. The goalkeeper was nonetheless left lamenting Chelsea's failure to score in Bucharest.

Raul Rusescu, Steaua forward
It is a great victory. We are happy because of the nice football we played and because we bring joy to our fans and our families. For every game in European competition, the stadium is almost full and the fans help us a lot.

We played like a strong team and Chelsea could not play their normal game. I don't know if we are favourites to qualify but we're confident and ready to fight at Stamford Bridge. Anything is possible, but we must be focused, give 100%, and see what happens.

Łukasz Szukała, Steaua defender 
We played really well tonight. The second game will be difficult, but it's important we won here and it's nice to go to Chelsea 1-0 ahead. We had chances – everybody saw we can beat Chelsea and after this win I think we became favourites. We are not dependent on one player. We played like a team and we must do the same in the return leg.

Petr Čech, Chelsea goalkeeper
Apart from the penalty they only had two shots and those were not really dangerous. We were better overall. We had more chances, better chances, more shots, but did not score. Losing 1-0 away from home is not the best result in a European tie and you could see how costly the away goals were for Manchester United in the Real Madrid game. If you can score away goals it's very dangerous and we did not score one, which is a pity.

In the past, we have turned around bigger deficits than 1-0 so this is nothing dramatic. We just have to make sure we score goals and don't concede and then it will be a different story. Steaua did well as a team. When they went ahead, they controlled things; they did not have to open the game as much as we would have liked. That's the way it is – we know they are a very good team so that did not surprise us.

We now face Manchester United in the FA Cup [on Sunday] and that's the best way to forget about this defeat. The second leg will be another game to look forward to. It is only 1-0 and we can easily overturn 1-0 if you play well and score goals.

David Luiz, Chelsea defender
It was a difficult game. It is disappointing because we try and win every game, but you can't play well on a bad pitch. It was difficult when you are trying to play direct balls from the back to Fernando [Torres]. We know we cannot afford to take risks in the second leg if we want to stay in the competition. We are in three competitions and we need to be focused in all the games.

Of course Steaua are a good team. If you don't have a good team then you can't hope to stay in the competition.