Paris's Alushi happy, Lyon frustrated
Saturday, November 8, 2014
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Paris Saint-Germain goalscorer Fatmire Alushi told UEFA.com: "We played as a team" after coming from behind to hold a frustrated Olympique Lyonnais 1-1 in their first leg.
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Paris Saint-Germain goalscorer Fatmire Alushi told UEFA.com: "We played as a team" after coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Olympique Lyonnais in the UEFA Women's Champions League round of 16 first leg. Lyon still have the upper hand for Wednesday's return but were frustrated not to win; we round up the reaction.
Fatmire Alushi, Paris midfielder
We can be happy, I think. It's not the same game as last week in the championship [when Lyon won 2-1]. We're happy. We played well in the second half and now we have time to prepare for the next game, and I hope in the next game we are going to win. This time we kept the ball, played the right pass and we played as a team. And we stayed calm. I think everyone saw that it was a different game to last week.
[At half-time] the coach just said: "Girls, you've played well. It's good. Just try to score now; it's very important. We need a goal." It was very important to score, and in the last 20 minutes of the game we were better and it's sad we didn't score the second goal. Now we have to score in Lyon – not so easy for us.
Next week? I think we'll have to start like the second half today and just play as a team and fight, and if we do this we can win. Everybody knows that Lyon are one of the best in Europe, and it's not easy to play against Lyon. We need more power for the next game.
They are very, very strong from free-kicks and corners. We know that and we trained this last week to stop it. But today it was a very stupid goal. Next week, we must be more focused when they have corners and free-kicks, because they are very good with these.
Kosovare Asllani, Paris forward
It was a good game from both sides, and an aggressive game. One-all is a good result and we'll really go after it in the second game. We're looking forward to it. The most important thing is that we corrected our mistakes from the last game, when we lost 2-1. We started well and we had the ball more, certainly more than in the league game, but we need to continue and keep improving all the time, and not let in easy goals like we did here.
At half-time, the coach said we started well and that we needed to find spaces behind their defence. He said we needed to keep being aggressive and that's what we did. We continued creating chances and it will be a very interesting game in Lyon. As long as we don't let in any goals, I think we can score. We'll need to be very aggressive, keep a clean sheet and be effective in our finishing.
It's nice to come up against [Sweden strike partner] Lotta [Schelin] and Lyon, because they're a really good team. That's how we improve as a team – by playing against the best teams. It's perfect to play them and I'd play them every week if we could. They're fun games – tough, but fun.
Farid Benstiti, Paris coach
It's good to underline that we came back, because mentally that's very important. It's not just that we came back, even if the result isn't favourable – we would have preferred 0-0 – but I think how we played to come back was good. For me, that's nearly a victory in itself, and the next game will be a different match, with a different strategy. It'll be another story, another film, and that's how we need to think about it. It's good that we came back, but it's not easy to equalise against Lyon, who are undoubtedly one of the best teams in Europe at the moment.
We can only improve from here. We were so absent in the championship game that even the players didn't recognise themselves at the Stade de Gerland. It'll be an away game and we'll need to be very united, very solid and very well organised collectively. And if even if we go 1-0 down, it won't be over: 1-1, 2-1 or even 2-2 will suit us. We have the ability to get a goal at Gerland.
Lyon don't have a lot of weaknesses. It's not about their weaknesses; it's about Paris's strengths, and how our strengths can make Lyon's weaknesses visible, even if they don't have many. That's the key for me – together, the squad has to believe in its ability to cause Lyon lots of problems on the pitch. We created our chances – they didn't fall to us. That's what we need to keep working on.
Élodie Thomis, Lyon forward
It was a good result. Unfortunately we conceded a goal and that's a shame, but Paris played a very good game tonight and I think the draw was a fair result. They played very well in defence and unfortunately we weren't able to make the most of our chances. We couldn't put them in and we had some pretty clear opportunities. They didn't go in tonight, but there's another game on Wednesday. With this draw, Wednesday will be decisive for both teams.
We scored away, so we just need a [0-0] draw at home to go through. On Wednesday, Paris will try to win, but in the same way, we won't be trying to manage the result either. We'll play a good game.
Gérard Precheur, Lyon coach
I always look for positives and the positive here is that we scored away from home, got a draw against a good team with lots of individual talents. It's a good result. Both teams had moments when they were on top, both in terms of possession and chances, although I thought we had clearer chances than Paris. We weren't quite as dominant as last Saturday or other matches in the past, but we have to accept that, analyse why and prepare well for the match on Wednesday.
Our confidence is high. We were superior in terms of technique, had lots of possession with good chances and we won in the league on Saturday. Paris were under pressure and were more of an attacking force than on Saturday, so this game was tougher for us, but it was still a positive performance.
Obviously, we'd be happier if we'd finished more of our chances – for example, Lotta and Ada [Hegerberg] in the second half – but we created chances, which shows that we still have a lot of attacking strength, which is one of Lyon's characteristics. I'll tell you on Wednesday if we have any regrets. For the moment, no. It was a satisfying performance and if it wasn't as good as we might have hoped, that's because we came up against a good opponent tonight. We need to have the humility to accept that, but we'll prepare and analyse everything for the game on Wednesday.