Laurentiis thrilled with qualification and hoping to begin an era of success from here
Napoli President, Aurelio De Laurentiis, has hailed his team’s qualification for the UEFA Champions League and believes that it will ignite a new era of success for the Azzurri.
The Italian side beat Villarreal by 2-0 in the last group stage game of the UEFA Champions League on December, 7th, 2011. The Partenopei outfit finished second in the group behind Bayern Munich and Laurentiis believes that securing
the qualification from the toughest group is a big achievement for the team.
Napoli had to struggle to score their opening goal and Laurentiis admitted that he was getting nervous as the game progressed. The President admitted that he was gutted with his team’s attitude until Gokhan Inler opened the scoring
for Azzurri in the 65th minute.
The Partenopei chief added that his time has matured a lot in the recent past and the progress they have made this season is equivalent to the work of three years. The 62-year-old is delighted to see all three teams from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926,
who qualified for the group stages advancing to the next round and believes that it is a healthy sign for Italian football.
“I was a little upset at the break, as these are games where the tiniest error can give away a goal. In the second-half, fortunately things picked up, it's important to have matched the same result as Maradona's http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Napoli-c40003, we passed
a difficult group, and the team has matured. I thank these lads for the great performance they gave, but above all for honouring the colours of this city.
"The work done in recent months is equivalent to the work of three years. The important thing is that three Italian teams have passed the group stage, and this evening is a turning point."
Laurentiis admitted that he had no problems with the draw of the group and believes that it helped his side to grow a lot. Napoli face another stern test as they will take on any of the top spot teams of the group stages when the
draw takes place in Nyon next week.
In other games of the competition, former Champions, Manchester United suffered a shock defeat at the hands of F.C Basel and dumped out of the competition.
Tags: