Relieved Soubeyrand relishes Juvisy progress

FCF Juvisy Essonne captain Sandrine Soubeyrand expressed relief after her second-half goal helped the French side edge through to the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finals at the expense of Stabæk FK. "The more chances we missed, the more we started thinking it might not happen," commented the veteran midfielder. Kristy Moore had put the visitors in a strong position by scoring the first goal of the tie 21 minutes into second leg, but the Australian striker felt the French outfit deserved to go through after goals from Janice Cayman and Soubeyrand turned the contest around.

Sandrine Soubeyrand, Juvisy midfielder
We didn't take advantage of our early pressure and then conceded from virtually the only shot they had in the first half, but that's football. At least the goal came early, so we had time to react. We fought back well, playing good football and making sure we got on top.

It was frustrating because the longer the game went on and the more chances we missed, the more we started thinking it might not happen. But by sticking to the task, by coming at them again and again, we managed to get the result. I had a bit of luck with my goal. I am left-footed but I feigned to shoot with my left before bringing the ball across and shooting right-footed. It was a good strike, but the deflection helped.

Camille Catala, Juvisy forward
We had to fight hard to go through. The Norwegians really played well, as we knew they would. They are really physical and it was not easy for us once they opened the scoring, but when they scored we knew we no longer had a choice – we had to go for it because we needed two goals. I would say it was a turning point because, from then on, everyone fought so hard for every ball. We all attacked together and got the goals we needed.

What I liked about the performance was the way everyone in our team enjoyed themselves. There was so much movement and we created so many good situations. Now we have to improve our final ball, our crossing and of course our finishing.

Katrine Søndergaard Pedersen, Stabæk midfielder
We are disappointed, but overall they played better than we did. Most of all I am disappointed by the way we played in the second half. It was as though we thought we could just defend and play for a draw. We should have tried to continue playing our game and keep the ball a bit more. They had more of the ball than us in the second half. I felt we should have tried to take back the initiative and instead we kind of hoped that they would not score.

Kristy Moore, Stabæk forward
It was a great start, going 1-0 up so early in the game. They created a lot of chances and had a lot of the ball, but I thought we fought hard and ran a lot and tried to cover a lot of ground. At the end of the game, we really took a chance and went with three at the back. We pushed them, but unfortunately it was not enough.

We will take things from the game. I think Juvisy played really well today, doubling up on the sides and getting in behind us with a lot of players. I think we need to work on countering that. They were the better team today.