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After the Champions League quarter-finals second leg matches, "Roma" coach Luciano Spaletti struggled to find words to explain the tragic defeat of his team, while "Man Utd" coach Sir Alex Ferguson called the match the most impressive victory of his career.
The "Roma" team had won the first leg with a score of 2-1 at home and had high hopes, but in the return leg in Manchester, they fell behind 0-4 after the first half and were crushed 1-7, which was the biggest win in Champions League knockout matches.
"I simply don't have words to explain this defeat. In the first ten minutes we played well, but they scored after their first serious attack. Instead of waiting, we showed our inexperience and ran too far forward, allowing ourselves to be beaten on counterattacks. That is exactly what we should not have done against such a team," analyzed L. Spalletti.
"I don't think we relied too much on our strength, otherwise the result would have been even worse. I would like to believe that we lost because we wanted to recover too quickly. We lost balance, and then everything just fell apart. Also, every shot they took ended up in the net. It was a nightmare to see them getting the ball in our field because after each attack the ball found the goal. What would I have done differently? Probably stayed home," admitted the "Roma" coach.
The captain of the Italian club Francesco Totti, who compared the match to the World Cup final, acknowledged that these failures will not be forgotten for a long time: "It was the saddest evening in my entire career. I have never lost by seven goals in the Champions League. Unfortunately, every shot was accurate, and that three-goal hurricane at the start of the match was a big blow to us. We tried to recover and do something differently, but it was very difficult."
"Man Utd" coach A. Ferguson claimed that such a victory was the biggest in his 20-year career at the club.
"It was a fantastic performance by each of our players. The speed and sharpness of our game were simply amazing. Without any doubt, these were the best matches in Europe that we have ever played here. We never expected to win with a score of 7-1, but our level of play was that high," said Ferguson.
According to Ferguson, this year's Champions League is a victory for English football: "The fact that three English teams are in the semi-finals (Although after a 3-0 away win, "Liverpool" has not yet played the second leg at home - ed.), means that our league is probably the best in Europe. Six or seven years ago, the best was Spanish football. But this year, "Barcelona" or Madrid's "Real" don't play as they used to, and the competition and level in England have improved in recent seasons."
One of the best players in the match, Cristiano Ronaldo, claimed that the victory was not a surprise: "Every player believed in their abilities. Everyone believed that we would achieve the result we needed, but the result is still unbelievable. Winning 7-1 against "Roma" in the quarter-finals is just great. It's all wonderful for the players and the club, but now we need to think about the semi-final. I really don't know which team I would like to play against."
