Porto's Defour lifted by Napoli experience

After surviving the full force of an SSC Napoli side backed by a vociferous Stadio San Paolo, FC Porto midfielder Steven Defour told UEFA.com he lives for games like Thursday's 2-2 round of 16 second-leg draw which sent the Dragons through. 

The partisan fans could not lift the home team to victory, though, with both Gonzalo Higuaín and Lorenzo Insigne feeling their European campaign had been cursed as they exited the UEFA Europa League 3-2 on aggregate.

Steven Defour, Porto midfielder
Of course we're delighted because we deserved this [aggregate] win. We had to suffer a lot because Napoli put us under a lot of pressure. We then got the goal in the second half and after we'd scored that, we were in control of the game. We played some good football then and it was pretty relaxed for us after having scored.

We knew Napoli would have a full stadium behind them and that they play very well at home. So we knew we would need to score and we looked for this goal and it came in the second half. It's a great pleasure to play in such a great stadium with so many fans. This is why we do this job – we live to play in big games like this.

I don't have any preference for the quarter-finals. All I want is to go all the way to the end, to the final.

Ricardo Quaresma, Porto forward
It was a difficult game, as we expected it would be. We've shown we're a big side and that we've got plenty of quality in our ranks. We play great football as a team and we now continue to pursue our dream. We'll take whoever we get, but we're not afraid of anybody.

Nabil Ghilas, Porto forward
The ball came to me and I had only one thing on my mind, which was to shoot. I was delighted it went in because that settled us. We had a bit of luck, then Quaresma got the second goal. We're starting to play better and better. Whoever we face, we're going to be up against a very strong side.

Gonzalo Higuaín, Napoli forward
We would have deserved to go through. We played a great game, creating plenty of chances, but their goalkeeper [Fabiano] was excellent. We were unlucky all along in Europe this year, with the way we also went out of the Champions League despite getting so many points. Maybe we deserved more today too. Now we've got to move on. Our season doesn't end here. We've still got the final of the Coppa Italia and ten games to go in Serie A. We need to move on.

Lorenzo Insigne, Napoli forward
It's sad to go out of Europe, especially considering the 12 points we got in the Champions League. We were unlucky tonight too, conceding after missing several chances to go two up. Now we've got to focus on the league and aim for second place, then we've got the Coppa Italia final.