Mangala stays cool after Porto oust Eintracht

Eliaquim Mangala kept his cool admirably after scoring twice to bring FC Porto back into their tie against Eintracht Frankfurt, a 3-3 draw in Germany that took his side through to the UEFA Europa League round of 16.

The defender struck in the 58th and 71st minutes of the last-32 second leg, with substitute Nabil Ghilas finally turning the tide decisively in Porto's favour after Alexander Meier had put Eintracht in front again. Mangala is now looking forward to an encounter with SSC Napoli, while Alexander Madlung, Pirmin Schwegler and Stefan Aigner could not disguise their disappointment at squandering a winning position.

Eliaquim Mangala, Porto defender
It was a difficult match, a very intense match, especially the second half because we had to turn the game around. What's important is that we are through.

We negotiated this round and now we will play Napoli, who are a good team, and we will try to win and get through the next round. We'll see what happens. The victory was thanks to everyone. It was a tough match, and now we will do everything to prepare for Napoli. Then we'll see what happens.

Pirmin Schwegler, Eintracht midfielder
It was a tight game with lots of intensity from both sides and lots of pace. We did really well because they are a top team in Europe. We were so close, which is why it hurts. With the performances in both games we deserved to go through.

We showed we were not in the Europa League for nothing. We had a great run and would like to take that boost into the Bundesliga. The atmosphere today – that was simply exceptional – but we would like to see that in the league now too.

Stefan Aigner, Eintracht midfielder
We put in a good display. We took a 2-0 lead and then gave the game away. In the end it is 3-3 and you are empty-handed. Unfortunately results are what matter in football and we are out. Of course, we can take a lot from the Europa League experience. It was a great experience for us to play against such opposition but unfortunately it did not work out. Nevertheless, we can build on that performance.

Alexander Madlung, Eintracht defender
If you take a 2-0 lead in a game like this, you must not give it away. It's brutal. We definitely kept up the pace very well in Europe and gave a good account of ourselves. We all wanted to go through but now we have to concentrate on the home games in the Bundesliga so we can win them and pick up the points to avoid relegation.