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London strategist Roberto Di Matteo was happy with the ticket to the Champions League semi-finals, but admitted that his players lacked enthusiasm in the return match against Benfica from Lisbon.
In the first match, the English team won 1-0 away, and at home they only managed to beat the Portuguese opponents, who played most of the match with ten men, after a tough battle, with a score of 2-1.
"As I said before the match, we expected a tough match and that prediction came true," said Di Matteo. "I think we made it difficult for ourselves because we couldn't score the second goal for a long time. Our opponents passed the ball well while we didn't control it long enough, even though we had more players on the field.
"I think we lacked a spark in our eyes. Maybe we were a bit tired, but we are happy with the favorable result. We deserve a ticket to the semi-finals."
About the future opponent FC Barcelona, the Italian coach said: "We are expecting two fantastic matches against one of the best teams in the world. We will find a strategy that will be most suitable for this opponent. It should be a combination of using our strengths and exposing their weaknesses."
